Episode 2 of ‘SVG Murder Mysteries’ premieres December 30

Producer of the original SVG Murder Mysteries series, Lyf Compton, says the second instalment will be captivating for audiences.

The second episode titled ‘The 2011 Disappearance of Shanika Small’ retraces the mysterious circumstances under which the 20-year-old aspiring Miss SVG contestant vanished.

Compton, a journalist with SEARCHLIGHT, said the team took feedback from the previous episode into consideration during the pre-production planning.

“The team went all out to make sure that this one was exceptionally done …people can look forward to a movie style production around 35 minutes long because, with the last one, a lot of persons were complaining that it was too short.”

The 16-minute episode which launched the series is called ‘The Murder of Godwin Forbes’. It focuses on the 1995 death of the well-known locksmith, who was gunned down at a home in Dorsetshire Hill. Compton described the case at that time as strange, as gun shootings were rare, noting it was more common to hear of domestic disputes.

Episode two, Compton said, is one that he feels personally connected to as he knew the victim as well as some of her friends.

He described the case as puzzling,  “It was said that the victim sent a 9-1-1 text message to someone and that person did not see the message until a few hours after. I am thinking about someone being in danger and having time to open up their phone and send a 911 message, wouldn’t it have been easier to dial 9-1-1?”

Rudisha McTair-Peters, a young professional who has a keen interest in drama, portrays the victim. This role will be her first in on-screen acting.

“It was a great experience. The staff of SEARCHLIGHT gave me a lot of great directions and everything went by smoothly.”

McTair-Peters shared that she knew the victim as they both worked together at The Grenadine House while she was there on a work-school program.

“I was shocked to hear a young girl in your country missing and then days, weeks later you find a body, it was traumatising and then you don’t know how it happened, which made it even worse.”

She said the most difficult part of the role was emulating the victim’s upbeat personality.

“She had a very bubbly personality, so I tried as much to portray that… I hope I gave her justice based on my acting.”

Compton said his interest in murder stories led him to conceptualize the true crime series. He said the initial idea was to have cold cases as a one-hour radio programme where persons could call in to share their thoughts on cases, however, he was turned down by various radio stations as they saw it as uninteresting.

Last year, he was given the opportunity by the Editor of SEARCHLIGHT and Chief Executive Officer of Interactive Media Limited, Clare Keizer to turn his idea into a video documentary series.

He thanked the people who came out voluntarily and gave their best for episode two.

McTair-Peters said she welcomes the idea of a locally based cold case series and she hopes that persons with information come forward to assist in solving these cases.

Christal Oliver and Adib Medford also co-star in this Interactive Media Limited product.

The series is written and directed by Senior Reporter, Christina Smith and shot and edited by SEARCHLIGHT’s in-house videographer, Eldontè Samuel and local film-maker, Javed Dasouza.

The episode will premiere on Saturday, December 30, 2023 on the SEARCHLIGHT’s YouTube Channel at 8 pm.