We found the 14th victim | Special Report

In December 2024, I travelled to New York City, not as a tourist, but as a journalist on a mission.

For more than two decades, I have been chronicling the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001.

That was the day terrorists flew the planes and passengers into the Pentagon, a Pennsylvania field, and the towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

Among the nearly 3,000 souls lost that day, it emerged that some were nationals of Trinidad and ­Tobago.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided a list of 14 names, which would be memorialised across our islands, including at the US Embassy in Port of Spain.

Among those names, Joan Francis stood out—not for the life she led, but for the questions surrounding her very existence and purported death that day.

While the other 13 Trinidad and Tobago victims had documented histories, Joan Francis remained an enigma.

No age, occupation or personal details were ever connected to her.

This absence of information intrigued the Express, and we spent years trying to find out about her.

Extensive searches through official US victim lists, survivor records, and legal documents related to 9/11 yielded no mention of her.

Even the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York, which meticulously lists all known victims, does not include Joan Francis.

Our reporting, never challenged, was that there was no Joan Francis, and that miscommunication or errors led to her name being mistakenly added to the T&T victims list.

But despite all our efforts, the T&T Consulate in New York, and the Ministry of Foreign and Cari­com Affairs, and its minister Dr Amery Browne, have provided no response, clarification or additional information regarding this.

And the US Embassy in Port of Spain simply said it was bound by the official record provided by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

So, “Joan Francis” continues to be remembered to this day.

It is an error made worse by the fact that there is an actual 14th victim from Trinidad and Tobago who died in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

It was the reason I travelled to New York, to the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero.

The enigma of Joan Francis: unravelling a 9/11 mystery

Every September since 2001, the various US ambassadors to Trinidad and Tobago and staff members assemble at two memorials located at the embassy’s courtyard in Port of Spain to remember the T&T nationals who died in the terror attacks.

The cenotaphs record the names—Conrod Cottoy, Rena Sam-Dinoo, Winston Grant, Clara Hinds, Stephen Joseph, Glenroy Neblett, Jerome Nedd, Oscar Nesbitt, Anthony Portillo, Vishnoo Ramsaroop, Goumatie Thackurdeen, Boyie Mohammed, Paula Morales and Joan Francis.

But that 14th named “victim”, Joan Francis. Who is she? Did she die that day? Did she even ever live?

In the hours following the attack that Tuesday morning on the US east coast, the world, before social media, turned to TV and radio to follow events, and witness people jumping and buildings collapsing.

Within days, the names of the T&T nationals began emerging.

Not from official sources at first, but from people calling home to tell parents and siblings that a relative who was working in one of the towers that day didn’t come home.

In New York, “Missing” ­posters covered the walls of buildings around the smouldering ruins as the city took on the unprecedented task of confirming who had died.

Some bodies were all but vaporised, while people who were initially thought dead were found at hospitals. Some near the ­towers ­contacted authorities to report themselves safe.

Death certificates were prepared only for those known to have been on the planes or in the buildings, and those whose families confirmed never returned home.

As for “Joan Francis”, her name became part of Trinidad and Tobago’s official record soon after the attacks, and appears in multiple places on the Internet.

But all these years later, nothing is known of this person. There has never been an age, address, occupation or information from anyone about when last she was seen.

There have been efforts by people in the US to find out about her through chat groups, blogs and ­remembrance sites.

“Whenever I look up your name, Ms Joan Francis. No one has ever claimed you, and strangers leave you mgs… Heart breaking, I will NEVER forget you, I think about you a lot, although I never met u. You are in my prayers. God bless you Joan Francis,” someone wrote in a memorial for her.

“Joan, you are in the thoughts of my heart. I will not forget you and have your bracelet I wish to give to the Francis family,” said another.

The Express spent years searching.

We checked the official list produced in the United States that details every single fatality arising out of the September 11 attacks.

We checked the names of the survivors. Of the multiple lawsuits filed on behalf of the victims, we searched the legal documents, since all victims are named as claimants. Nothing. At the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York, the names of 2,977 victims are inscribed. No Joan.

As part of the tribute of remembrance at Ground Zero each year, the names of victims are read aloud. We listened to the recordings. There is a Pauline Francis from Barbados. There is a Virgin Francis from Domi­nica. There is no Joan Francis.

How could it happen?

Easier than you might think, said people with knowledge of how information is gathered, processed and assessed by T&T diplomatic missions, consulates and outposts, before being communicated to the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Port of Spain.

Nothing was usual in 2001—in the US, or T&T.

T&T’s Consulate in New York had a master list of nationals, obtained through registration with the consulate or from details filed with the Immigration Section when they had passports issued or renewed, the Express was told.

The T&T Consulate set up a hotline to the office of then-­mayor Rudy Giuliani, as it sought to ­confirm the deaths.

Fourteen names came to the Consulate, then headed by Terrence Walker, now a director on the board of the Central Bank.

And those names came home to Trinidad and Tobago, a country in the midst of a political crisis.

In December 2000, the Basdeo Panday-led United National Congress won the general election—a victory challenged by the PNM, on the grounds that two successful UNC candidates had filed nomination papers illegally; while Presi­dent Arthur NR Robinson refused to, then relented and swore in seven defeated candidates to Cabinet.

By early 2001, a split in the party caused the UNC to lose its parliamentary majority and control of government when Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, Trevor Sudama and Ralph Maraj defected and formed Team Unity.

Meanwhile, the lame duck government had Mervyn Assam as its multi-tasking minister of enterprise development, foreign affairs and tourism.

A month after the terror attacks, Panday announced a snap election, leading to an 18-18 tie that ended with the anointing of Patrick Manning as prime minister by President Robinson.

Voters went back to the polls in October 2002, the third election in three years, with the PNM winning a majority. Meanwhile, Joan Francis became part of the official record of T&T nationals who died on September 11, 2001. And no one questioned it.

In 2020, the Express first provided what it found out to the US ­Embassy in Port of Spain, and asked if it could independently verify the identity of “victim Joan Francis”.

The official response was: “The Embassy’s Public Affairs Section can confirm the names of the T&T nationals who died in the 9/11 attacks were provided to the Embassy by the T&T Consulate in New York.”

So we reached out to the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs. The ministry advised that the Express reach out to consular administrator Mary Tang Yew at the Consulate in New York.

The Consulate investigated, and replied that it was able to locate a 9/11 file, and provided a response to the Foreign Affairs Ministry on or about October 18, 2022. Since then, the ­Express has tried on multiple occasions to get the Ministry of Foreign and ­Caricom Affairs to disclose the findings.

None of these entities replied.

But an Express reader did.

The phantom victim

Just off the Queen’s Park Savannah and across from the Belmont Police Station in Port of Spain is a tangle of single-lane roads connecting what were once the barrack houses of the labourers working the low-paying jobs around the city.

The descendants of these barrack yard people marked off and fenced their spots, with the houses packed as tight as Tetris blocks, being improved from wood to concrete, or not at all.

It is here that Joyce Rose Cummings was born on June 17, 1936, and spent her early life before leaving as a young adult for the United States—a migratory route pursued by so many Trinidadians over the years.

She would settle in Brooklyn and leave her home in the care of a woman who would one day come to own it ­because of the terrorists.

We know this because of a tip from an Express reader who made contact in August 2024 and suggested we find out about this woman.

So, we searched the official records to discover that Joyce Rose Cummings was listed as a T&T national dying on ­September 11, 2001.

Further proof has come from a probate of will publication in the T&T Gazette which showed that Cummings, in February of the year she died, named Lerita Bruce, of 5A, Rosslyn Street, Belmont, as her sole executrix. In the letter of probate, Joyce’s date of death is listed as the 11th day of September, 2001.

We visited this Belmont home in January, and spoke with people connected with Joyce. We were told that she had a son in the United States who would have benefited from the September 11 Victims Compensation Fund.

We were told that when she died, her Trinidad family mourned her. But when she was never recognised as a T&T victim, none of her Trinidadian relatives bothered to correct the authorities, even though the US Embassy was just on the other side of the ­Savannah.

To this day, there is no public record celebrating her life.

Except a single article in The Watchtower (A Jehovah’s Witness publication) dated January 8, 2002, which read: “Thousands of people died in the disaster. Among these are at least 14 Witnesses, who happened to be at or near the scene of the tragedy. Joyce Cummings, aged 65 and originally from Trinidad, had a dental appointment near the World Trade Center.

“Unfortunately, it was about the time of the disaster. She was apparently overcome by smoke and was rushed to a nearby hospital. They were not able to save her…She was known as a very zealous evangeliser.”

Last December, I visited Ground Zero, found the name JOYCE ROSE CUMMINGS etched into the bronze wall of South Tower memorial, to pay respects, and give Joyce the dignity of identity.

NOTE: The information about Joyce Rose Cummings was also shared with the Foreign Affairs Ministry on February 3, 2025, with a request for feedback. There has been no response.