( Trinidad Guardian ) A murder costs the state at least $5,545 even before a funeral service can be held. That does not include the cost of an autopsy.
The figure is based on the fees charged by funeral homes for the transportation, storage and equipment used for the removal of a body from a crime scene.
For the 341 murders recorded as of Thursday morning, the state has already spent, at minimum, $1,890,845 for the year.
Using this estimate, the government has spent at least $29,116,795 on the removal, storage and transportation of murder victims’ bodies over the past decade.
At a 2023 Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) symposium it was estimated that 4.07 per cent of this country’s GDP (approximately TT $1.4 billion), is spent on dealing with violent crime. Rutgers University professor Dr Andres Rengifo calculated that, based on data obtained in 2022, a single murder costs $2.4 million.Due to inflation and an increase in the number of killings, stakeholders in different industries believe the cost has risen and will continue rising, making violent crime a dangerous and expensive problem.
As of July 25, the murder count for 2024 was 341, overtaking the toll for the same period last year which was 329.
This is the first time in almost two years that the murder toll has eclipsed the previous year’s figure, raising concerns that murders may increase beyond last year’s figure of 576, which dipped slightly from the record-high murder count of 605 in 2022.
However, a loss of life by murder also represents a loss of income for households and a loss of taxes from an individual on a societal scale.
Removing and storing bodies isn’t cheap.
Funeral homes in different parts of T&T operate on a roster with divisional police when there is a murder, unnatural death or road fatality. At any time of day or night, funeral homes on call can be contacted by police to transport a body.
The designated funeral home bills the state the cost of removing the body from the scene of a crime or accident plus a separate fee for storing the body in their refrigeration units before an autopsy could be done at the Forensic Science Centre (FSC), St James.Director of Simpson’s Memorial Home Ltd, David Simpson, said the current fee structure is expected to increase because of increased shipping costs for basic items and the rates of electricity consumption for industrial use.
“With the increase in electricity there has been an increase so I’m quite sure that refrigeration costs will eventually rise because we’re paying more now than we were paying before,” Simpson said.
“The cost of equipment we need from suppliers in order to effect these removals, we are charged based on what Customs and Excise charges, based on what the shipping costs are and whatever brokerage fees are incurred by a supplier.
“The cost will be passed on to us and therefore we will have to pass it on to make sure we can break even.”
Simpson said basic items for removals like body bags are costly. His company often orders them in bulk from manufacturers.
Locally, adult body bags cost $210 plus VAT, individually or in packs of ten.
Simpson said undertakers called to a murder scene fill out forms with information on how many workers were involved in carrying the body, how many body bags were used and how many coveralls were used. This information is included in a bill that is stamped and signed by officers at the district police station and submitted to the accounts department of the High Court where they are processed and a cheque issued.
Simpson said in his experience most of the families of murder victims have not sought assistance through the NIB’s funeral grants as they are either unemployed or too young to make sufficient contributions to be eligible.
Families who cannot afford the cost of a funeral apply to the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services for a funeral grant of $7000. Basic funeral packages usually begin at around $10,000 but some funeral homes offer services for as low as $6000.
At a regional symposium on crime and violence as a public health crisis in April 2023, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley quoted statistics showing that surgery for a gunshot wound to the head costs around $170,000, while surgery for a chest wound costs $135,000.
There was no response to questions sent to the Ministry of Health about the cost of treatment for gunshot wounds, but former general manager of the North-West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) Dr Keegan Baggan said it is likely the cost of surgery has increased since 2022.
Dr Baggan said the shipping costs for medical equipment are a significant factor in the final bill for violent crime.“Wounds from gunshots require surgical theatre time, it requires surgeons depending on what area is affected. It’s more than just the utilities (prices) that have increased, what has impacted healthcare overall is that we’ve been having problems with global manufacturing and global transport so shipping equipment costs more to bring those things in,” he explained.
“Things like blood testing reagents, the manufacturers if they aren’t producing enough will control how much they supply to each buyer.”
Criminologist Dr Wendell Wallace said the financial vacuum created when breadwinners are killed is a serious hurdle for some families.
“Without a doubt, there is a burden that is placed on the remaining family member but it depends on the positionality of the person who was killed.
“I have seen instances where students have to withdraw from the University of the West Indies because their father was the sole breadwinner. If it’s a household where both parents are working to pay the mortgage, you’ll have the burden falling on that person to stretch their resources to cover those of the deceased person,” he said.
For the relatives of watermelon vendor Dillon Joseph, the trauma of his murder and the financial strain have made healing difficult and expensive.
Joseph, 32, was gunned down at his watermelon stall on the Caroni Savannah Road in April 2023.
He was one of several residents of Trainline Village, St Augustine, murdered between January and June last year.
Joseph’s older sister, Indrani, said he lived with her and other relatives who often pooled finances from their respective jobs to survive. Since his murder, she has sold her car and the family’s van which they used to transport produce to make up for the loss of income.
“We sold everything to survive for that year and I ended up with nothing, no house, not even clothes. People gave us things and that’s how we survived. We literally had to start over from scratch,” she said.
Joseph was one of several families whose homes were firebombed by criminals during the attacks on Trainline Village residents last year. She moved out of the St Augustine neighbourhood and doubts she will ever return.
While she was unable to give an exact figure of the income lost from her brother’s murder, Joseph said it was “quite high” as his funeral expenses alone were over $10,000.“When a family member dies people don’t realise how hard it is financially to recover. To survive you have to start back all over from scratch. There are people who have family to help them, but I have nobody to help me because I lost my mom and my brother last year. My mom got welfare but since she passed it all falls on me,” she said.
Joseph now works at a produce stall and does her best to support her surviving relatives but is still haunted by her brother’s murder. In addition to the loss of sleep, she suffers flashbacks of the murder scene and seeing his body.
“I raised him as if he was my own child since I was the oldest, so when he died it felt like I lost my son, not just a brother.”