(Trinidad Express) The skeletal remains of a decapitated and charred female were discovered by police yesterday at Dookhan Trace, Aranjuez, in the vicinity of Aranjuez Villas.
Members of the Crime Scene Unit wheeled out a rolled-up body bag and a white plastic bag, possibly containing the head, on a stretcher.
Acting on information, the body was found about 1.20 p.m. by ASP Mahabir together with members of North Eastern Division Task Force—Cpl Sunil Bharath and PCs Satesh Mahabir, Lorenzo Lezama and Stephen Johnson.
When the Express arrived about an hour later a number of police officers and vehicles were already on the scene together with TV6’s CrimeWatch television host Ian Alleyne and a group of curious residents.
Fire officers arrived later to determine how the body was burned.
The remains were at the end of the road flanked by tomato and lettuce patches, and a long red ticker tape marked off the scene.
Residents told the Express the land, which had bamboo patches and a few scattered coconut trees, was abandoned except for an old man who would periodically farm there. One resident reported seeing a number of corbeaux circling on Monday.
Relatives of missing 16-year-old Barataria South Secondary pupil, Ameera Raisa Karim, had reportedly been informed by police that her body had been found and visited the scene.
Shakira Karim-Arjoon, believing the body to be that of her daughter, bent down, hugged herself and started sobbing “oh gosh, no”. A police officer asked her to sit down in the vehicle and a resident arranged for a chair and some water for her to drink.
“I not ready to bury my child. Why me? Give me back my child,” she screamed repeatedly.
An officer told Karim-Arjoon and her father (the missing girl’s grandfather), Herman Karim, that they “strongly suspect” the body to be that of her daughter.
An undertaker told the family to “trust God” and believe it was not their relative. Karim-Arjoon’s ringtone was coincidentally “If I Die Young” by US alternative group The Band Perry.
Shakeera Karim-Arjoon had told the Express earlier this month that her daughter left their Crosby Street, El Socorro Road home on December 16, 11 days ago, and has not been seen since.
The identity of the body, however, was not confirmed and a weave discovered on the head by the undertaker led the relatives to believe it was not her. Karim lamented that his granddaughter was still missing.
After the news from the undertaker the family left.
