13YO HELD IN CONNECTION WITH 9YO’S MURDER

9-y-o girl found dead; boy, 13, in custody

BOG, Westmoreland — The Westmoreland police have taken a 13-year-old boy into custody in connection with the gruesome discovery of the body of a nine-year-old girl in bushes Tuesday night.

The deceased has been identified as Kadijah Saunders, also called KC, of Bronte District, Westmoreland.

Police believe that she was strangled by her assailant.

“We have taken a youth into custody while we carry out further investigation,” head of the Westmoreland Police Division Superintendent Gary MacKenzie told the Jamaica Observer last night.

The 13-year-old, who also attends the New Works Infant and Primary School, as did Kadijah, and lives in the same community, was picked up by the police yesterday.

According to a grief-stricken aunt, when Kadijah’s mother did not see her returning from school at 6:00 pm, she became concerned and travelled about five miles to her school, but saw no one.

She returned to her community and asked other students if they saw her and was told she was last seen awaiting an older student who lives close by and usually accompany the younger student home.

But the older student denied seeing the nine-year-old.

The distressed mother then left her community to report to the police in Savanna-la-Mar that her daughter was missing, while her husband and other community members launched a search.

While the distraught mother was still at the police station the search party found the body of her daughter, naked, in bushes in Bog district, a community that borders Bronte.