Police are questioning a 36-year-old Guapo sales clerk about the discovery of a baby’s body in a shallow grave at the back of her home.
Police said the woman was taken for medical attention and is expected to undergo psychiatric evaluation.
At around 8 am, a resident of Gonzales Village was watering plants in his garden at the back of the woman’s home when he discovered what appeared to be a shallow grave.
He decided to check and found the body of a baby girl wrapped in cloth buried just a few inches below the surface near fig trees.
He contacted the police and Point Fortin CID officers, including ASP Ramphal, Insp Neemai, Sgt Ramsingh and Cpl Noyan, along with detectives from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations, Region Three, visited the scene of the decomposing corpse.
The area was cordoned off as crime scene investigators checked for evidence. The woman was then taken into custody.
No one else was in the house at the time, but a neighbour told police the woman had been pregnant.
Others expressed shock and said the woman and her husband appeared to be normal.
Police are looking into possible concealment of birth and the illegal disposal of a body. A DNA test may be done and the woman’s mental state will be assessed. She is due to meet with counsellors from the police’s Victim and Witness Support Unit.
Investigators said it was too early to classify the death and an autopsy will be done on Monday at the Forensic Science Centre.
Cpl Bajhan of the Point Fortin CID is continuing investigations.