Double suicide shocks Trinidad
In local crime news the police say that there is nothing of note to report but in Trinidad and Tobago the nation is reeling from a double suicide that is straight out of “Romeo and Juliet”. When two teenaged lovers did not receive the blessing of their parents they decided that life was no longer worth living. The T.T.T.’s Paolo Kernahan reports.
Seventeen year old Balraj Babulal and fourteen year old Vanessa Beru took their relationship to a new and fatal level. At approximately six thirty this morning a man walking along the Granville Beach came upon the youths suspended by their necks in an arm of the tree. The girl’s father on hearing the news went to scene, cut his daughter down, covered her body and returned home. Balraj’s dog would remain near to the bodies until chased away by the police. T.T.T. News understands that Vanessa left her home yesterday evening and did not return. At around this time at the Babulal home, according to police reports, Balraj Babulal had just finished reading a letter written to him by Vanessa. Police say that they learned from the family that he was physically distraught over what was contained in the letter. The two were involved in a relationship which the parents on both sides objected to. Investigators say their families were concerned about the relationship because the two of them were still in school. Balraj Babulal was with the Cidrus Civilian Conservation Corps and Vanessa was a student at the Cidrus Composit School. Police say the two were also cousins. At the Beru home today, relatives gathered to comfort the family. The girl’s father was too distraught to speak to us on camera. At the home of Balraj Babulal the scene was much the same. The boy’s father, however, seemed shocked by the choice his son made.
Balraj Babulal’s father
“I was very confused. I didn’t know what to do. I sat crying when I heard ’bout dat.”
A relative tells T.T.T. News of a similar circumstance two years ago when Babulal’s daughter reportedly attempted to take her life by ingesting pills, because of a romantic involvement that did not meet with the approval of her parents. She survived her suicide then. A very telling sign, police say, is when the two were found they were facing each other. Paolo Kernahan, T.T.T. News.
In better news from the Caribbean, Jamaica’s World Cup bound football team last night held the powerful Brazilians to a nil – nil tie in the first game of the CONCACAF Copa de Oro in Miami. The Reggae Boyz’ next opponent will be the national team of El Salvador on Friday night in Los Angeles.
