Wife still awaits word about missing ‘Dixie’ sailor

IT was just over 11 years ago when Dexter Richmond walked out of his home at Shoe Lane, New Amsterdam, leaving behind his wife Angela and their four young daughters, Abina, Melissa, Vanessa, and Kimberly.
In June 2015, Dexter Richmond, John Layne, Jay Gibson, and Ron Mendouze were manning the Dixie vessel, as it was transporting a barge of concrete blocks from The Dominican Republic, en route to the Turks and Caicos Islands. The vessel was registered to KRS Transport Ltd, a then local charter company.

The Dixie left Puerto Plata in The Dominican Republic on June 18, 2005, for Turks and Caicos, where it was expected to arrive the following day with concrete blocks. But it never arrived. Angela Richmond recalled that a day or two before her husband’s departure, a co-worker Layne Gibson had telephoned informing him of the job openings awaiting them in Trinidad. Being unemployed at the time, Richmond quickly made arrangements to travel, as he had intended to make a better life for his family, but, not before spending the last Father’s Day with his offspring.

“He left somewhat hurriedly,” his wife recalled, whilst seated at her place of employment; she is a laundress at the New Amsterdam Hospital. It was necessary for her to find a job to maintain her growing daughters. “Life has been hard since Dexter left. I have not heard anything new,” she moaned.
“About two years ago, I made contact with the owner, Sherab Sears. He told me nothing yet. I expressed to him the struggles I am facing, he responded, I like you, I eating with my hand .Since then I have had no word. My life is stagnated, as I cannot move on, as I do not know whether my husband is dead or alive. I need closure. I made a vow before man and God, and I have to keep it, until I know what has happened to him.”

But, Mrs Richmond recalled too that after it was discovered that the vessel was found in 2009, Sears, when contacted had revealed that the matter concerning benefits and insurance was engaging the courts in Trinidad and Tobago, and should the ruling of the courts be favourable, then he would split the benefits with families of the sailors.
“However, I am yet to hear the outcome of the court,” Mrs Richmond said, “while the phone of Mr Shirab Sears goes unanswered.”

She noted that her daughters who are all grown, would ask several questions about the whereabouts of their father, and those questions remain unanswered. She recalled that on the instruction by a Government official during an outreach in New Amsterdam last year, she was advised to make a missing person report at the Central Police Station. She did so, and also submitted a statement. As time goes by, there are questions that remain unanswered, such as why is Shirab Sears so secretive about the whereabouts of the missing sailors? “ I believe he knows more than what he is saying to us. After 11 years, when will Sears decide to talk with us, the families of the missing sailors, who were the breadwinners of their respective homes?”