Missing teenager Shabana Mohammed’s family were left distraught yesterday after five days of intensive searching by the police ended when her badly decomposing body was discovered buried in a shallow grave behind their Santa Cruz home.
The discovery was made around 10 am by Mohammed’s neighbour, who decided to conduct his own search behind the family’s property after he and others in the community noticed a strong foul scent in the area.
Mystery surrounds the find, however, as it was made in an area searched by police armed with cadaver sniffer dogs on several occasions since Mohammed, a sales co-ordinator at a shipping company in Woodbrook, was reported missing on Saturday.
Investigators believe she may have been killed somewhere else before her killer returned to dispose of her body between Wednesday and yesterday morning.
This theory was disputed by a senior police source close to the investigation, who yesterday suggested the area where the shallow grave was hidden was possibly overlooked by investigators and relatives.
“Because of the state of the body it would have been nearly impossible to move it to that location without being noticed,” the source said.
Homicide detectives have already identified a prime suspect in the crime, a male friend of Mohammed.
The suspect, whose father is a member of the Special Branch, was initially interviewed by police on Monday but later released.
“There were some irregularities in his original statement so we need to question him again to get some clarity,” the police source said.
Investigators are expected to interrogate him again after they obtain a report on Mohammed’s post mortem, which is to be conducted at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, today. It is also needed to determine Mohammed’s cause of death as it was not immediately recognisable due to the advanced state of her body’s decomposition.
Torture for family
When a team from the T&T Guardian visited the crime scene yesterday, scores of curious neighbours and friends lined the street outside the family’s home.
Many could not hold back their tears as they openly recounted their memories of the teen, who they described as beautiful, kind and a “jewel” in the community.
Over two dozen heavily-armed T&T Regiment soldiers were seen patrolling various parts of the community, which featured utility poles still plastered with missing posters of the teen. The posters were also stuck to the windows of most vehicles driving through the area.
Mohammed’s family, who spoke extensively with media personnel on her disappearance earlier this week, were too distraught to speak after her body was removed from the scene.
“It is torture for them. They need to come together and comfort each other at this time,” a spokeswoman for the family said briefly before returning to the house to comfort her grieving relatives.
According to reports, around 7.30 am on Saturday, Mohammed’s relatives left her home alone. When they returned several hours later she was missing and an area of the house had been ransacked.
Relatives reported her missing after neighbours said they heard screams coming from the house and Mohammed’s cellphone went unanswered.
Insp Roger Alexander and Sgt Cornelius Samuel of the North Eastern Division Task Force (NEDTF) are assisting detectives of the Region One Homicide Bureau in investigating the murder.