I just want closure - Mother anxious to find out how daughter died in Trinidad

The mother of Amanda Reid, the Jamaican woman who died mysteriously in Trinidad and Tobago last month, has grown restive with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as they still haven't been able to ascertain what led to her's daughter's death.

The mother, Berbeth Grant, said she was informed by the ministry that an autopsy on the body was carried out on September 11, but she has not been informed of the results even after asking multiple times.

"The autopsy was done from the 11th of September, and I don't get back a response from no one saying that Amanda die from X, Y or Z. No one call me to inform me on anything about it," Grant told THE STAR.

Reid's body was found in her boyfriend's house in Chaguanas, Trinidad, on August 26.

Days after Reid's death, rumours circulated that she had hung herself.

Grant, who is from Race Course, Clarendon, has been appealing for help to bring her daughter's body back to Jamaica as she is not in a financial position to do so.

"I am a single mother without a job, and Amanda died leave her nine-year-old son, and I have to take him because his father died when he was four months old," Grant told THE STAR.

She reached out to THE STAR for help to bring the body back to Jamaica, but was not able to garner enough money to do so.

"The help weh mi get cannot do it, so I asked Foreign Affairs [Ministry] to help," Grant said.

Proper send-off

She said that she just wants to bring closure to her daughter's untimely passing.

"It is like Amanda was an animal that died in Trinidad. No one trying to help and Amanda was a Jamaican. I want to put closure to this. I want to find out what happened to her and get the body to have a proper send- off," Grant said.

But head of the Consular Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Desreine Taylor, said that her department has been receiving fast response from the government of Trinidad and Tobago, and is asking Grant to exercise a little bit more patience.

"Actually, I am surprised that they agree to do the autopsy that quickly. They have done the autopsy and are preparing the report. We have a system in place how autopsy reports are done (in Jamaica) and the Trinidadians have a system. We cannot go and push them and rush them, but they know that we are waiting on it," Taylor told THE STAR.

Taylor said the ministry has been in contact with Grant and is also committed to assisting her to bring back her daughter's body to Jamaica.

"If she was to be doing that on her own as a private citizen, she wouldn't have gotten as far as we have gotten. I understand her anxiety. We are sensitive to that, but she has to be patient," Taylor said.