(Trinidad Guardian) – The body of ten-year-old Tecia Henry was found yesterday under a house in Laventille. The girl went missing on Saturday after her mother sent her on an errand. Police believe she was strangled.

Tensions are high in the Laventille as angry residents hurl accusations against each other and there is a heavy police presence in the area.
Henry was a student of the St Rose’s RC Primary School, Henry Street, Port-of-Spain and the Education Ministry ordered the school closed at 11.30 am yesterday. Teachers were said to be in a meeting.

On Tuesday, while residents of the area had held a prayer meeting for the safe return of the child, her mother Diane Henry dropped to the ground and on bended knees and with hands upraised, recited Psalm 23, calling on the “beast” who took her daughter to immediately release her. “My daughter is alive and I waiting on her to come home,” Diane said softly. But amidst the supplications, the women— mostly single parents—said Tecia’s disappearance left the community traumatised. Children were too afraid to play on the streets and parents were reluctant to send them to the neighbourhood parlours.

Saying that a “madman” was on the loose in John John, residents also described afternoon walks to buy ice cream as a thing of the past. Tecia, a student of the St Rose’s Girls’ Primary School in Port-of-Spain, went missing after leaving her mother’s home on Essex Street in John John, around 7.30 am on Saturday. The child was sent to K and G mini-mart, at the lower end of John John, to purchase a phone card and other items. She never made it to the shop.