A friend of Avita Bissoondatt has turned out to be the one who masterminded her kidnapping and captivity in the mountains for six days.
But it was the same friend who, in the end, confessed to the crime, and took the police to the camp where Bissoondatt was being kept.
Police rescued Bissoondatt on Thursday evening, killing one kidnap suspect while a second fled.
Warrants have been issued for the arrest of three men.
The investigation has expanded. The friend in custody confessed to police of their involvement in a kidnap gang, and of befriending several other people who were then made kidnap targets.
Bissoondatt, 22, the niece of attorney Darin Bissoondatt, went missing last Saturday afternoon, after leaving the family home at Soledad Road, Lange Park, to meet her friend, Shanice Ramcharan, at a restaurant at the Price Plaza Mall, Chaguanas.
Bissoondatt's car was found burnt in Valencia the following morning. On Monday, a $300,000 ransom demand came.
Ramcharan, 22, also vanished for several days, and failed to make contact with her family at Caura Royal Road, where her mother lives, or with the police. She has since been found.
The break in the case came on Wednesday, when investigators found a friend of Bissoondatt at the home of relatives in Morvant. The home was searched and the friend taken into custody. The friend helped police pull off Bissoondatt's rescue on Thursday.
Yesterday, the mastermind is said to have given a detailed five-page statement to police in the presence of Justice of the Peace Ackbar Khan. On Monday, the suspect is expected to appear in the Port of Spain Magistrates' Court on three charges -kidnapping, demanding money by menace and robbery. The enquiry will be heard in the Chaguanas Magistrates' Court, where the abduction began.
And yesterday, while police were able to make that written breakthrough, they also returned to the scene where Bissoondatt was rescued.
The officers conduct forensic tests on the blue, green and white shack hidden three miles deep in the forest off the North Coast Road where Bissoondatt was found. They also continued their search for one of Bissoondatt's captors.
In the midst of the regular calm and quiet associated with the North Coast roadway during the week, the officers conducted investigations into the densely forested area. The entrance to the track leading to the shack is metres away from a wooden Sunshine Snacks sign.
The few passing vehicles were oblivious to the detailed search. Only the five unmarked police vehicles, three sport utility vehicle, a van and a car, parked opposite the track at the side of the road, were a clue to the activity.
At 4.38, the group of no less than 11 officers, some dressed in camouflage and others in tactical gear, exited the area after combing the forested area for clues.
Investigations are still continuing into the identity of the man killed in a shootout with police on Wednesday.
