• Simeon Roopchand (the suspect) of Hosein Street Bank Village, Carapichaima, was found hanging from a tree near Damien Road, Tabaquite, on Saturday 24th September, 2022. His red Nissan Almera motorcar was found abandoned in the area last Tuesday.
• On Monday, relatives realised Merissa, an employee of the University of the West Indies’ Faculty of Science, missing and questioned Simeon about her whereabouts hours after he turned up at their home early on Monday to pick her up, as though nothing had happened.
• Simeon had picked up Merissa on Sunday 18th September, at her John Eli St. Ext. home in Freeport and they went out to have drinks. Merissa was never seen or heard of by relatives since then.
• The now deceased suspect previously claimed he dropped Merissa off at the highway leading to her home, sometime after 10pm but she never made it inside.
• Her relatives became suspicious, saying that such an action was unusual as Simeon would usually drop her in the driveway of her home and ensure she got inside before he drove off.
• The relatives then began tracking the GPS on Merissa’s phone and realised that her phone had been in at least three separate locations, including at Simeon’s home, even up to 3am early on Monday morning. Simeon had lied to them and their suspicions grew.
• Merissa’s sisters confronted him and showed him the GPS coordinates from a laptop computer. Merissa’s phone pinged at the restaurant and bar in Endeavour; Simeon’s home in Carapichaima at after 3am; and finally at a gas station in Mc Bean, but it had closed at10pm the night before.
• Simoen claimed he forgot to tell them they went to his home. As attempts were made to further question him, he quickly entered his car and left. He later sent a WhatsApp message saying that he would kill himself and he did precisely that.
(Ian Alleyne spoke with Merissa’s sisters and father and their home on Wednesday, and this is their story)
