A woman missing since she left her mother and two children 41 days ago saying she was going for a job interview is now in a British prison on cocaine charges.
The plight of 26-year-old Efuru Gooding was revealed to the WEEKEND NATION?yesterday as her “confused and depressed” mother, Irene Gooding, appealed to Government authorities for help in maintaining the two children, an eight-year-old girl and a nine-month-old boy.
Gooding, of Deacons Road, St Michael, said her daughter was held at Gatwick International Airport in England last month and is now on remand behind bars.
She said: “The girl [Efuru] left home about midday, [December 10] dressed with a handbag over her shoulder and said she was going about work and asked me to keep the children until she got back from the interview. I kept on looking for Efuru since it was getting late and I called her cellphone but I wasn’t getting any answer.”
Gooding said the next day she went to the police station to report her daughter missing, but was told that could only be done after 48 hours had elapsed.
Gooding however got the shock of her life five days later when her daughter telephoned and said she was being taken to prison from the airport in England.
“I thought she was making sport but when I took a close look at the phone I saw these lots of digits beginning with zero and then a lot of ones.
“My knees just went weak, I couldn’t even talk or swallow my own saliva.”
Ever since, Gooding, who is unemployed, has been struggling to care for her two grandchildren.
She said it was becoming a nightmare since she could not meet the children’s simplest needs.
Gooding said she visited the Welfare Department to inform them of her daughter’s situation. She was told she would have to present Efuru’s identification card to be able to receive cheques that were originally posted to her daughter.
“This thing just left me hurt and vex. Words can’t explain how I feel about the whole thing. My daughter left me to go about a job and the next thing I hear, she’s in prison in England, and then these two grandchildren I can’t even muster enough to feed and keep them,” she said.
In a letter written apparently from her prison cell, Efuru told her mother she had been seeking a better living for them.
“I know you are vex, mum, but I am sorry it happened this way. I was just trying to get something better for us,” she wrote.
