GIRL, 13, SNATCHED

[Grande]

GIRL, 13, SNATCHED
Trinidad Express
Richard Charan rcharan@trinidadexpress.com

Thirteen-year-old Shannon Bedasie begged the kidnappers not to hurt her sick father before she was silenced and dragged away .

"I heard her telling them don't hurt him. Don't kill. He is sickly," said Simeon Bedasie, recalling the moments before she was snatched on Tuesday night.

Simeon Bedasie, 55, begged yesterday that his daughter and only child be released.

"I have no money to give. I can pay no ransom. All I want is for my child to come back home to me. Put her somewhere safe so that she can return," he pleaded .

Bedasie, of McBean, Couva, is the owner/manager of Kenny's Driving School, a business known to many in Chaguanas and Port of Spain.

The abduction of Shannon, a first form pupil of the Couva Private Grammar School, is the fourth kidnapping for money this year.

She was snatched around 9 p.m. on Tuesday from her home which is being renovated.

Bedasie, a diabetic, said: "I was in bed. I asked my daughter to squeeze my foot because it was swelling. Same time, we heard the dogs barking.

I was getting up from the bed when three bandits rushed in with bandannas covering their faces and with cutlasses". Bedasie said he was pushed back onto the bed and his daughter was taken to the kitchen.

"They asked me for the money I withdraw (from the bank) to fix the house. I told them I don't have any. They ask for jewelry and bank card. I said I don't have none".

Bedasie said one man decided he would behead him. "They put a pillow over my face, and say don't look. They tied my foot and hands and covered my mouth with duct tape," he said.

Just then, Bedasie said he heard his daughter begging for his life "then she just went silent. I think they taped her mouth".

The men escaped in Bedasie's Nissan B-12 car. About 20 minutes later Bedasie said he managed to free himself.

"I went around the house calling Shannon's name, hoping their just beat her and leave her. I kept bawling until a man passing on a bicycle helped me."

Bedasie said Shannon was all he had. His wife, Marion, died two years ago on December 6, Shannon's birthday.

"We were very close. And although she was mature for her age, she will be so frightened".

At nightfall yesterday, there was still no word from the kidnappers.

The Anti Kidnapping Squad is investigating.
 

Readers' comments:

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161277988

[capodetutticapi]

them fukkers just take de lil girl fuh pure wickedness.them modda c**t deserve death

[E-man]

Teen’s kidnap suspect nabbed
By Newsday Reporters

Friday, February 15 2008

Security guards intercepted a suspect in the kidnapping of Shannon Bedasie, 13, as he drove erratically on a street in Woodbrook on Wednesday night.

The guards from Executive Bodyguard Security Services Ltd were driving east along Baden Powell Street, which is a one-way between French and Colville Streets, when they spotted a car heading towards them.

The guards stopped the suspect to alert him that he was proceeding in the wrong direction and challenged him when he tried to run away.

They took the man to the Woodbrook Police Station and handed him over to an inspector who ran a check on him and the vehicle. During the investigation, the inspector discovered that the vehicle belonged to Shannon’s father Simeon, who is the owner of Kenny’s Driving School.

Shannon was snatched from her McBean, Couva home on Tuesday night by three men after they failed to get cash and jewelry from her father.

They drove off with the Form 1 student to the Couva Private Grammar School in her father’s car.

The 25-year-old suspect from Bagatelle, who was found with the car, was turned over to the Anti-Kidnapping Squad and investigators believe they may be close to finding the schoolgirl. She remained missing up until last evening.

Shannon’s relatives made preparations at the McBean home yesterday for a prayer service to be conducted by her uncle Rev Mikey Bedasie, who is a minister at the McBean Presbyterian Church.

Simeon said he had received support from the police, relatives, friends and other members of the community.

He said, “Mr Ramsingh, the principal of her school visited me... and said the school prayed for her safe return. Tonight (Thursday) we are asking God to bring her back home safely.”

“I don’t have a Valentine, last year we went to a restaurant, she had roses, we ate ice cream and cake, today she is not here with me.”

He said he got a “little glimmer of hope” yesterday when investigators called and questioned him about his vehicle.

“I am really trying to stay positive, but as a father I don’t like the feeling I’m getting,” he groaned.

A ransom demand has not been made for Shannon’s safe return.

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday and Chief Whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj met with the family last evening and said they will meet with Police Commissioner Trevor Paul today to discuss the upsurge in crime in Laventille and its spill over into central and south Trinidad.

They said the Government has to provide the same level of protection given to Laventille residents to those in other communities.

They assured Simeon that his daughter would return to him safely.

[Dutty]

Good thing those security guards were on the ball

ah hope they find de lil girl soon

[ZANDOLIE]

She look real mature for 13. These fools better not have harmed that child nah.The police, crown, and politicians go make hay on this one. Is it just me or do these kidnappers always seem to take adolescent girls? Like a kind of pedophile attitude....

They still have death penalty in T&T?

[capodetutticapi]

she is 13.

[Grande]

Freed kidnap victim runs into a custody battle
Richard Charan rcharan@trinidadexpress.com
Saturday, February 16th 2008
 
 
 There was no happy ending yesterday for kidnapped teenager Shannon Bedasie, who, instead of a reunion with family, was taken to court as the subject of a custody battle between her father and her dead mother's sister.

And except for a brief exchange on the phone, father and daughter never met, as she was taken away to the St Jude's Home for Girls, and he, in tears, returned home.

Shannon, 13, was grabbed by three masked men during a robbery at her father's home at McBean, Couva, on Tuesday night. The men beat and tied her ailing father, Simeon Bedasie, 55, owner/manager of Kenny's Driving School.

He was asked for the money he was planning to use to fix his house, bank cards and jewelry. Bedasie said he could not give the men anything. So they took Shannon away in his Nissan B-12 car. No ransom call was ever made.

On Wednesday evening, the car was spotted heading the wrong way on a one-way road in Woodbrook. The car, which turned out to be Bedasie's, struck four other cars before the driver was pulled out and detained by officers of a security company.

On Thursday night, Shannon was set free near the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain. She found help at the Port of Spain General Hospital. Belmont police picked her up.

AKS officers said they were working on the assumption that the kidnapping was genuine. Shannon's father also believes his daughter was a victim.

Bedasie's wife, Marion, died in December 2006, and her sister gained legal custody of Shannon. But, according to relatives, Shannon left her aunt's home and moved back with her father last November. The aunt is said to have filed a complaint with the court and a summons issued for the girl to be taken to the court yesterday.

AKS officers took Shannon to Chaguanas, where she was remanded to the girls' home until next Friday, when her father and aunt will be allowed to say why Shannon should remain in one or the other's custody.

At his home yesterday, Bedasie said: "She was happy and comfortable living with me. She was going to school and doing good and happy. I am capable of caring for her so I don't want her to be taken away. I feel like my child is still kidnapped."

The man caught driving Bedasie's car will be charged with larceny. Police said they did not have enough information linking him to the abduction.
 

[Bakes]

Very fishy story.

[E-man]

Kidnap victim sent to St Jude’s
By NEWSDAY REPORTERS

Saturday, February 16 2008

SHANNON BEDASIE is safe. The 13-year-old who was reported kidnapped from the Couva home of her father Simeon on Tuesday, was released by her abductors near the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain on Thursday night.

Senior sources said when Anti-Kidnapping Squad officers investigating the abduction were about to interview Bedasie yesterday, they received a telephone call from the Couva Police Station where officers said she was wanted on a warrant for “uncontrollable behaviour.”

The teenager, it was reported, was taken to the Couva Magistrates’ Court yesterday where she was ordered by a magistrate to be placed in the custody of the St Jude’s Home for Girls and to return to court on Monday.

This situation arose, police reported, after Shannon’s mother Marion died of cancer two years ago on the teenager’s birthday, December 3, and she went to stay at the home of an aunt in Chaguanas. Last August, she ran away from the aunt’s home but was found.

She ran away again in September, October and November. Her guardian petitioned the courts and secured a warrant of “uncontrollable behaviour” against Shannon.

However, Bedasie’s father Simeon yesterday said he wants her to return to his home. He added that he would not stop praying for his daughter to be returned to him.

“Tonight’s thanksgiving service will still be held for her although she will not be with us...she is in our hearts,” he said.

He expressed disappointment that the police did not release Shannon to his care upon her release and claimed he was given the runaround by officers.

Bedasie told the police she was dropped off at Belmont Circular Road at about 10 pm on Thursday.

She added that at all times, she was kept blindfolded. Upon her release, she made her way to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where she spoke to a security guard, told him who she was and was taken to the Belmont Police Station.

Officers took the girl to the Port-of-Spain CID. The police took Shannon back to the hospital for her to be examined. Police reported that her clothes and hairstyle were intact and she did not have any visible sign of being beaten or having endured any trauma.

Shannon was allegedly snatched from her Southern Main Road, McBean, Couva home on Tuesday night by three armed men who entered the house in search of money and jewelry.

On Wednesday night, a car belonging to Simeon which was used to abduct the teenager, was intercepted on Baden Powell Street in Woodbrook and a man detained. Investigations are continuing.

[weary1969]

NOne ah d family should get dat chile how could dey sent her 2 St. Jude's