Trinidad: Baby discovered in shallow grave, police detain woman

(Trinidad Guardian) Po­lice are ques­tion­ing a 36-year-old Guapo sales clerk about the dis­cov­ery of a ba­by’s body in a shal­low grave at the back of her home.

Po­lice said the woman was tak­en for med­ical at­ten­tion and is ex­pect­ed to un­der­go psy­chi­atric eval­u­a­tion.

At around 8 am, a res­i­dent of Gon­za­les Vil­lage was wa­ter­ing plants in his gar­den at the back of the woman’s home when he dis­cov­ered what ap­peared to be a shal­low grave.

He de­cid­ed to check and found the body of a ba­by girl wrapped in cloth buried just a few inch­es be­low the sur­face near fig trees.

He con­tact­ed the po­lice and Point Fortin CID of­fi­cers, in­clud­ing ASP Ram­phal, In­sp Neemai, Sgt Ram­s­ingh and Cpl Noy­an, along with de­tec­tives from the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions, Re­gion Three, vis­it­ed the scene of the de­com­pos­ing corpse.

The area was cor­doned off as crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors checked for ev­i­dence. The woman was then tak­en in­to cus­tody.

No one else was in the house at the time, but a neigh­bour told po­lice the woman had been preg­nant.

Oth­ers ex­pressed shock and said the woman and her hus­band ap­peared to be nor­mal.

Po­lice are look­ing in­to pos­si­ble con­ceal­ment of birth and the il­le­gal dis­pos­al of a body. A DNA test may be done and the woman’s men­tal state will be as­sessed. She is due to meet with coun­sel­lors from the po­lice’s Vic­tim and Wit­ness Sup­port Unit.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said it was too ear­ly to clas­si­fy the death and an au­top­sy will be done on Mon­day at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre.

Cpl Ba­jhan of the Point Fortin CID is con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.