DNA test confirms Turkeyen body is missing teacher

Dec 11, 2014 News

They waited five months to confirm the fate of their beloved one and when confirmation finally came yesterday,

Nyozi Goodman

the relatives of school teacher Nyozi Goodman could hardly accept that she was dead.
Police yesterday announced that the results of DNA tests conducted on the remains of a female found at Turkeyen on July 24 last, have confirmed that it belonged to the missing St. Stanislaus teacher, who disappeared on July 6 after leaving the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, where she had accompanied students on a sports assignment.
“The results of the DNA testing conducted by the Forensic Science Centre of Trinidad on the samples taken from the body that was recovered at Turkeyen, ECD, on July 24, 2014, have confirmed the body to be that of teacher Nyozi Goodman, of William Street, Kitty,” the police said in a statement.
But the results might mean nothing now, since according to the police, the prime suspect   in her death, Royston Waldrond was killed a few weeks ago in a confrontation with the lawmen.
Carol Green, the dead teacher’s mother, is still in shock, not wanting to accept the reality.
She was waiting for months on the results and when it was finally relayed to her by Crime Chief Leslie James, she could not control her emotions.
“I did not want to believe that it was her. I was hoping that she is still out there,” she said.
According to Green, she was disappointed with the way she found out about the results.
She said that she did not want to be told the results of the DNA test via telephone, since she had asked the Crime Chief to invite her to his office and break the news gently to her.
“I used to say that I will not cry when the results come back, but I screamed. He (Crime Chief) called me about 11 o’clock and he was reading from a document. I started screaming, I was at work. You see, I am not too well. I could’a get a heart attack,” Green lamented.
“My son always used to tell me that I will doubt the DNA results and it is true,” she added.
Speaking about the man who police say was responsible for her daughter’s death; Green stated that she is not too sure what to think.
“Let’s say he was not the person, then that means that the real killer is still out there. Now that they get back the DNA, for them the case is closed,” Green said.
The woman stated that although she knew that the return of the results was inevitable, she was not prepared for it at this time.
“I ain’t really got no Christmas spirit. I just going through the motion,” Green said, adding that her daughter would have been visiting her in Linden at the close of school for the Christmas season.
For now, the family is making plans to bury the remains which had been lying at the Lyken Funeral Home for the past four and a half months.
Meanwhile, police said they have obtained funding to send another set of body samples for DNA testing at the same facility.
The police stated that the same rank who brought back the results of the Goodman tests, had taken the samples of remains believed to be that of missing businessman Mohamed F Khan.
The remains of the body suspected to be that of Khan with the head severed, were found at Graham’s Hall, East Coast Demerara on September 22 last.