Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 09, 2008 News
…14-year-old suspect in custody
By Fareeza Haniff
Grief struck the quiet community of Bath Settlement on the West Coast of Berbice yesterday, when the body of 13-year-old Kavita Panday, fondly referred to as ‘Veneisha,’ was found at the side of a canal, a short distance away from her parents’ garden.
Reports indicate that the teen, of Lot 122 Block ‘D,’ Bath Settlement, who attended the Number 11 Woodley Park Secondary School, was brutally raped and murdered before her body was dumped at the side of the canal.
The victim’s father, Rajesh Panday, told Kaieteur News that when he found his daughter’s body, at around 14:00 hrs yesterday, her underwear and tights were below her knees and the left side of her face was swollen and “black and blue,’ while the left side of her abdomen was badly bruised.
He explained that her shirt was also ‘lifted up.’
Kaieteur News understands that a 14-year-old boy from the same community, whose father also has a garden in the farmland, has been taken into police custody in relation to the incident.
Reports indicate that the girl was last seen in the company of the young man as they were heading into the farm to chase cows that were damaging the crops.
A source has since informed this newspaper that the young man’s neck bore scratches on the left side.
When Kaieteur News visited the girl’s residence last evening, her mother, Claudette David, was inconsolable, as she found it hard to accept that her daughter was dead. In tears, David told this newspaper that one of her friends from the area was sick, and, as such, she went to visit her at around 13:00 hrs.
She explained that she left her daughter at home with the instruction that she should not go anywhere.
David explained that from the house where she was, she could have seen the gardens, and a few minutes later, she spotted her daughter and the boy going into the farmlands. She noted that she saw cows roaming the gardens, and whenever this happens; her daughter would usually go to chase them off the land, so that the animals would not damage the crops.
“Meh see meh daughter and the boy going in the gardens… Well, normally, he is like meh own son, because he does help we out in the gardens… but whilst coming out now, I ain’t see she and meh deh pun de landing and is meh neighbour cycle she borrow and the girl tek long at the garden and the guy wanted the cycle. He went and collect it at the koker and still I didn’t see her coming.
So I see cows in the garden still and I said that something wrong, because if she went and chase cows, how cows guh still deh in deh and she nah come?” David said.
In the meantime, she noted, she saw the same young man with whom she saw her daughter earlier, and enquired from him the whereabouts of her daughter.
David said that the young man denied seeing the teen, and only when she told him that he was seen going into the farm with her, that he admitted to seeing her.
According to the tearful mother, it is the same boy who led her to where her daughter was found. She explained that whilst searching for the teen, the young man found her slippers and her blue hat.
It was this that led David to believe that something terrible had happened to her daughter.
“Meh start holla, ‘baby, weh yuh deh?!… Veneisha, weh yuh deh?!.. and she nah respond to me, and meh start scream and everybody start come and help meh. They find she in the trench not far from the garden,” David recalled.
The mother noted that her daughter is not the type to have boyfriends, and emphasised that she would not even wear strapless clothing.
“I wish they can find the person who did that to my daughter… it’s very hard for me…She’s only 13 years old…She’s a very good child… She was never rude,” the tearful mother recalled.
Up to news time, the 14-year-old suspect was still in police custody assisting with investigations.
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