Visa deniedBy Darcel Choy Friday, November 6 2009
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Denied: Margaret Spence at her home in La Horquetta, Arima. ...
Margaret Spence has described the United States embassy in Port-of-Spain as being heartless and cold for denying her a visa so she could assist the Miramar Police Department in Miami with the suspicious disappearance of her daughter Lisa Spence.
“It is important that I be over there. I am not going to their country to live or work, I want to go to represent my daughter. They should have some kind of measures for situations such as these,” she said.
In an interview at her La Horquetta, Arima home, Spence, 58, said she visited the embassy on Monday with all her necessary documents including a letter directly from the Miramar police requesting her presence.
“During the meeting I was asked what was my purpose for visiting and I explained to him the entire situation and I also presented him with the letter from the detectives but he did not even look at it or even touch it. I kept pushing it at him but he just said I am not qualified for a visa to the United States and that was that,” she said.
She explained her family realised something was wrong when Lisa, 35, who was last seen on October 7, did not call her daughter in Trinidad one day.
“A day never went by without Lisa talking to her 18-year-old daughter, a little while before she went missing she called and told her daughter she would call the next day because she had to buy a phone card. The next day came and no call, so she got concerned and called her mother’s phone and there was no answer,” she said.
Spence admitted that Lisa’s daughter and her 12-year-old son have been trying to cope with the ordeal.
“Her son has been dealing with it but her daughter is not handling it well at all. She is depressed, she told me if it turns out that her mother is dead she may kill herself, I had to sit her down and tell her if it comes to that we would have to come to terms with it the best we can but it is a frightening thought,” she said.
Lisa moved to South Florida about four years ago to join a boyfriend and worked as a cashier at both Bella Beauty Supplies and at the Quik Stop convenience store, located side-by-side in a strip shopping centre in the 7500 block of Pembroke Road. She lives in an apartment directly behind the stores, on Venetian Street.
According to police reports, Lisa was seen leaving her apartment with her boyfriend in a rented white jeep and when he returned he was alone.
“The police have searched that vehicle and they found traces of blood on the back seat so they requested that her daughter who thankfully had her visa come over there so they could test for a DNA match,” Spence said.
Spence, an employee of Marios Pizzeria for more than 24 years, is the mother of four other children, and is a grandmother of 18.
She described her daughter as quiet, secretive and one who did not talk much but was liked by everybody.
“I have been praying everyday for results, I pray that something comes out of it. In my heart, I do not believe that she is dead,” she said.
When asked what her next step will be, she said: “I would know after tomorrow (today) when I meet with representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
Newsday was advised that staff of the protocol and consular affairs office of the ministry had all left for the day when a call was made at about 3 pm. Newsday was also advised that no one was available for comment when a call was made to the United States embassy.
