by Randy Bennett
“Keep hope alive!”
That is the advice being given by counsellor Shawn Clarke to family and friends of missing couple Sherwin Parks and Shanice Wickham, following an unsuccessful three-hour search yesterday.
Parks, 24, and Wickham, 25, of Gemswick, St Philip, were reported missing on November 4 and 6, respectively.
Scores of people yesterday assembled in Speightstown, St Peter – where Wickham’s Suzuki Swift was found on November 7 – and searched the surrounding areas and parts of St Andrew for any clues that would explain the couple’s mysterious disappearance.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Clarke, the chief executive officer of Supreme Counselling for Personal Development, said these were understandably difficult times for their friends and families.
He urged them to keep the faith and believe their loved ones would be found alive and well.
Clarke also advised the families to rely on each other’s strength during this trying period.
“At this stage, there is very little that can be said to bring about any level of comfort to the family. The only thing that the two families would want to hear right now is that the daughter and son have turned up at their doorsteps.
“However, the only thing that I can say is to advise the family to keep hope alive. You’ve not had any reports as yet, any evidence as yet, that they are deceased or anything of the sort, so until that is done keep hope alive. Obviously, at the end of the day, they need to find some form of comfort in the Creator because in a situation like this, that is the only place that you can turn,” Clarke said.
“Be there for each other and be each other’s keeper. Try to find the strength to support each other. The father finding strength on his own, the mother finding strength on her own, it would be much more difficult than if they come together and find strength together where they can lean on each other, enjoy the warmth of each other and get through it together,” he added.
A distraught Charlie Inniss, Wickham’s father, speaking on Starcom Network’s call-in radio programme Down to Brass Tacks this morning, said his daughter’s disappearance had taken a toll on him.
He disclosed that he had not eaten in almost a week as he tried to cope with the anxiety surrounding the disappearance of the second oldest of his nine children.
Inniss also expressed his disappointment with how the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) was handling the issue.
He recalled being part of a search party for Karen Harris back in 2015, when members of the RBPF and the Barbados Defence Force took part.
“It is very disturbing to me because I know I was part of that search for the white lady that was missing…. I don’t know what the police is doing.
“I didn’t hear them tell me about any search or that they are planning to do any search or anything like that. I can remember when the lady was missing, they came out in their numbers and I’m not hearing anything from the police really about anything of the case. I am disappointed,” Inniss said.
“This is about five straight days that I haven’t really eaten anything. She is my second oldest and the oldest of the girls…. I have people calling me from all over, like Trinidad, Canada, America – people that know me from way back.”
The worried father appealed to persons who might have any information that could assist, to pass it on to police.
“I hope that other people who know anything of the disappearance of the two people, my daughter and Sherwin Parks, that they will come forward to the police or call the hotline to give the information that they have, or if they see or hear anything,” Inniss said.
Police public relations officer Inspector Rodney Inniss today issued another missing persons’ report for Parks and Wickham, urging anyone with any information to contact District ‘C’ Police Station at 416-8200, police emergency at 211 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477.
(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)
