‘Elliot was once a bright student who shone in table tennis tilts’

Eria Elliot used to be a bright, smart, shy student of William S. Reyes Elementary School. In the early 1990s, WSR was a dominant school in table tennis competition in the Public School System. And Elliot was one of WSR’s top players.

Retired teacher Val Welch disclosed to Saipan Tribune yesterday that Elliot’s stepmother is a Palauan, but his real mother is from Kiribati. Welch said Elliot didn’t know his mother because he left Kiribati with his father when he was very young. Apparently, Elliot’s parents separated. His father took the young boy to Saipan.

Saipan Tribune learned that Elliot’s father is a Caucasian who previously worked at the Superior Court.

Welch’s wife is from Kiribati and the couple used to help Elliot. There are only a few Kiribatise on the island.

Welch recalled that, back in the early 1990s, PSS used to hold an annual table tennis-all schools championship tournament. At the time, table tennis was a major competitive sport and WSR, under coach Joe Santos, was the dominant school. Elliot was one of the top players. Later in junior high school, Elliot could be seen at the Ada Gym, practicing table tennis many hours every week.

Yet, despite his talents, Elliot was already going in and out of the hospital’s psychiatric ward while in high school, Welch said.

He said one of the psychiatrists was frustrated with Elliot’s treatment and expressed that something had to be done as they could not just keep him in the hospital all the time. The former teacher said the psychiatrist did not say anything about the problem being related to drugs or alcohol, but stated it was a genetic problem.

In a June 2006 medical report, a psychiatrist, Dr. Willie Gutowski, disclosed that Elliot has been a familiar patient at the Commonwealth Health Center for acute psychosis related to alcohol and marijuana abuse. Gutowski said Elliot suffers from schizophrenia and has auditory hallucinations.

Welch remembered that one time Elliot swam to Managaha Island and stayed there for a week, just living on leftover food. Elliot returned to Saipan on a ferry.

“For a time, he seemed to be in full recovery. He was taking care of himself, he was driving a car, and he was looking for work,” he said.

Welch said Elliot became particularly excited when he talked with his mother for the first time on the phone.

“He couldn’t speak directly to her because she doesn’t understand English and he doesn’t speak Kiribati,” Welch said.

He said an opportunity to really help Elliot was lost when he was not sent to Kiribati after talking with his mother because at the time, “that was all he could think about.”

“In Kiribati he would have family, here [on Saipan] he has no one,” Welch said.

Welch said Elliot’s father, a carpenter, built his son a canoe with a sail that Elliot would sail inside the reef. The father converted an outrigger canoe into a boat with a small motor that could take four or five people to Managaha.

“Many times Eria [Elliot] would join us on trips we would take on that boat. This contact all happened while Eria was in elementary school,” Welch said.

He said when Elliot went to junior high school, they didn’t have much contact with him until the shelter for abused women contacted them.

Welch said the shelter informed them that a Kiribati boy was living in very poor conditions and they asked if they could take him in because he didn’t qualify to stay in the shelter.

“It was when we took him in that we were able to call his mom,” Welch said.

He said the father, who is still on island, had helped Elliot before but he would only “mess up the apartment.”

The 28-year-old Elliot has been in and out in jail due to several criminal charges, mostly from assaulting people and disturbing the peace. Judges also issued numerous bench warrants for his arrest for not appearing at court hearings.

Last Tuesday, associate judge David Wiseman issued a bench warrant against Elliot for not appearing in court. The following day, associate judge Ramona V. Manglona also issued a bench warrant against the defendant for non-appearance.

As of yesterday, police have yet to arrest him. At lunch time yesterday, Saipan Tribune spotted him again in Garapan doing his regular thing—roaming the streets and entering establishments to ask for food and money from passersby, customers, and tourists.