Girl found at Parika was strangled, sexually assaulted

The post-mortem examination on the nine-year-old girl found in a pile of logs on a Parika beach on Tuesday has revealed that she died as a result of manual strangulation compounded by blunt trauma to the head.

The body of Basmattie Seecharran called ‘Indy’ was on Tuesday morning recovered from a pile of logs on the Parika beach. Police had initially suspected that she had drowned but her relatives had said that she was a victim of foul play.

A police statement last evening said that the post-mortem also showed that she was sexually assaulted.

When Seecharran’s body was found, she was lying face down and one side of her face was swollen while blood had oozed out of her nose and ear. She was clothed in only pants. Her mother Ramwattie Safeek had told Stabroek News that after the girl didn’t return home that night she had looked for her for a while but had given up as she said that Seecharran would frequently go to her grandmother’s home in Zeelugt without telling her. The girl’s other relatives with whom Safeek had a rocky relationship had also suspected foul play.

A police source had told Stabroek News that it was believed that the girl had gone for a swim and had somehow drowned and unless the post-mortem report indicated otherwise they would treat the case as one of drowning. With the results in yesterday police said that they were pursuing all leads.

A resident had told Stabroek News on Tuesday that the last time he had seen her was around 7 pm with a boy and he thought that they had gone to a ‘wake’ being held nearby.

Another woman also said that the last time she saw Seecharran was around 2 pm on Monday when she had brought some fruit for her and chatted with her for 15 minutes. She said that the girl was a “pleasant child”.