Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two toddlers in separate incidents at their homes in east Trinidad between Saturday afternoon and yesterday morning. In the first incident around 2.30 pm on Saturday, St Joseph police were called to Arnold Bates Circular, Santa Margarita, St Augustine, where three-year-old Aijah King drowned in a pool.
The owner of the property, Paul Carr and the child’s mother Reshma John, told police that they were walking in the yard when they noticed King lying face down in the pool. They quickly removed his body and attempted to resuscitate him but were unsuccessful. Emergency Health Services (EHS) personnel arrived at the scene soon after and took the unconscious child to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
When a team from the T&T Guardian visited the house yesterday, a car was parked in the driveway and another in front of the house, but no one responded to the doorbell. A little over 12 hours later, 42-year-old Maria Villafanna contacted the Cumuto Police Station after she awoke to find her six-week-old son dead in his bed.
Villafanna told investigators the child fell asleep after she fed him around 1.45 am. When she got up two hours later she noticed that the child was unresponsive and was not breathing. Both Villafanna and the baby were taken from their Jubilee Street, Guaico/Tamana Road, Cumuto home to the Sangre Grande District Hospital. Doctors on duty at the Accident and Emergency department examined the baby and pronounced him dead
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Police said they have not ruled out negligence in both cases, but said they will wait on autopsies at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, today before they decide on how to proceed with their investigations. Cpl Stevenson and WPC Skeete are investigating King’s death, while WPC Collins of the Cumuto Police Station is probing the death of Villafanna’s son.