The father of murdered Republic Bank employee Shannon Banfield yesterday admitted that his claim that his daughter’s organs had been harvested during a ritual was simply rumour he heard “on the streets.”
Richard Banfield said he made the Facebook post, which sparked interest on social media, out of frustration.
In a Facebook conversation with Guardian Media yesterday Banfield said he was being kept in the dark about the happenings involving his daughter’s murder and had receiving information that his daughter’s organs had been removed.
The admission to the Facebook post came hours after he told another news outlet that his account was either hacked or that the person who posted the status used a fake Richard Banfield profile, inclusive of a profile picture of his daughter.
On Tuesday, Deputy Police Commissioner Wayne Dick said there was “absolutely no truth” in the claim after Banfield’s Facebook post began circulating. Many who shared the post claimed it was legitimate since it came from the girl’s father.
In the correspondence on Facebook, Banfield said: “After her body was discovered on Thursday (December 8). That was the last I heard. Tried calling them. Got no reply. To date I got no information. I was frustrated, stressed out, and didn’t know what else to do. I just went on to vent. Reading some of these things is very heartbreaking. I didn’t put up anything that wasn’t already on the street, word on the street. I had no information, I was frustrated, I needed to vent. It was the word on the ground. I have no regrets.”
On Tuesday, IAM worker Dale Seecharan appeared in court charged with Shannon’s murder. The lead investigator in the case said Seecharan acted alone.
The store which was under police control since the body was found in the warehouse beneath some boxes, was handed over to the owner Ishmael Ali yesterday. A cleaning crew spent most of the day yesterday cleaning the store.
When the T&T Guardian visited store yesterday the cleaners said they did a thorough clean and there was “no smell or nothing” in the store, which is expected to re-open soon.
Banfield, of Mc Carthy Street, Cantaro Village, Santa Cruz, was last seen leaving her workplace—RBL’s Independence Square branch—around 4 pm on December 5.
In a telephone conversation with her mother Sherry-Ann Lopez around that time, Banfield said she was going to purchase items at the same store (IAM) she was eventually found in. Banfield’s body was discovered hidden under some boxes in the company’s third floor storeroom around 1.30 pm on December 8 by employees who were searching for the source of a strong decomposing scent which they believe was a dead rat.
An autopsy stated she had been smothered and police recovered what they believed to be a murder weapon, a bloodied towel, near where she was found.