BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 13th September 2019)-The father of a well-known ‘beauty and brain’ pageant participant, 27-year-old Taitu Goodwin, who was a delegate in the first annual Miss Black San’ International Swimsuit Pageant held in April 2017 in St.Kitts, is calling for the death penalty in the case of an ex-boyfriend who alleged stabbed her to death earlier this week in Anguilla.
Her father Bruce Goodwin, Antigua and Barbuda’s former Ambassador to Cuba, aired such sentiments during a live telephone interview on ABS television on the day in question describing her to be “My most beautiful, brightest best of out all of my 11 children. She was the love of my life, the greatest love of my life” as he furthered his call for “the death penalty for murderers.”
Details from the Public & Media Relations Department in Anguilla said the incident involving this “tragic death” took place on Monday 9th September at about 4:30 AM in the Windward Point Area.
To date, Glenville Hodge, a 23yr old male of Island Harbour has been charged for the offence of Goodwin’s murder and remanded to Her Majesty Prison.
According to Goodwin, the accused killer was his daughter’s “boyfriend until a year ago when she separated from him.”
He added: “He has been obsessed with her since then, [harassing] her on several occasions until finally in the wee hours of this morning, he apparently broke into her apartment where she lived alone and he murdered her brutally.”
As gathered, Taitu -who originally hails from Antigua and Barbuda- moved to Anguilla some years ago with her mother.
“…she was a teacher in the school system down there. She went to study law which was her passion. She studied law at the University of Cardiff in Wales and at the University of [Université Catholique de] Lyon in France and just last year, she graduated with her Master’s Degree in Trade and Investment law from the University of St John’s University [School of Law] in New York and her most beautiful and shining dream were to practice in her legal profession and rise within that profession as an accomplished lawyer,” the grieving dad said.
Additionally, he told that she was a linguist who spoke several languages.
It is understood that she was the head of her department at the Ministry of Finance in Anguilla.
Goodwin said she visited Antigua regularly and stayed with him with her most recent visit being about two months ago.
Notably, Taitu was crowned Miss Anguilla in 2012 and also placed second runner-up in Miss Jaycees in 2013 during the annual carnival festivities in her birth country of Antigua and Barbuda.
“She was certainly one of the best and brightest of her generation. She was also a beauty queen if I can say that even though I never approved of her entering that kind of pageantry. She was so accomplished in every field. Her personality is beyond description interims of its beauty and all of her friends would regard her as being jovial, conversational and witty and all those things.”
In commenting on what should happen to his daughter’s accused murdered, he stated: “I have always been an advocate of the death penalty for murderers…and I continue to be an advocate of the death penalty. It may not be 100% effective as a deterrent but it still has some deterrence and if our judiciary had not gone soft on murderers and criminals, many of those who have died at the hands of these demonic personalities would still be alive today and so I think it would be for my beloved Taitu and I am calling on my judiciary to return to the days when they were tough against demonic perpetrators like the brutal murderers we have strutting around in the Caribbean thinking ‘Oh, I can do as I like with other people’s lives and I will spend a few years in jail and come out and walk about the place and be happy just as if nothing had happened. They must be hanged by their necks until they are dead.
The Black San’ committee has expressed condolences via its social media Facebook account saying in part: “Taitu was a delegate in the first ever Miss. Black San’ International but due to circumstances beyond our control, she did not compete on show night. However, she spent the entire week in St. Kitts with us and we enjoyed her company. She was a very strong and determined individual which made her stood out. This unfortunate news has hit us hard. We constantly follow the progress of our past delegates and this is certainly not the type of information we wish to receive.”