An au­top­sy has re­vealed that a four-year-old girl, who was tak­en to the hos­pi­tal last week af­ter she was re­port­ed­ly found un­re­spon­sive, was mur­dered.

Po­lice said the death of Jemi­ma Bona­parte was now a homi­cide, af­ter the au­top­sy found that the child had been stabbed to death.

On Mon­day, dur­ing what should have been a rou­tine au­top­sy af­ter Jemi­ma was re­port­ed to have choked to death last week­end, doc­tors at Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex found marks of vi­o­lence on the child and or­dered a full-scale au­top­sy at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre.

Se­nior po­lice of­fi­cials said then that marks of vi­o­lence were dis­cov­ered all over the body, and punc­ture wounds were found on the neck.

Po­lice con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that the child was stabbed, af­ter the in­for­ma­tion was re­leased on so­cial me­dia.

Po­lice are still hunt­ing for a close male rel­a­tive who in­ves­ti­ga­tors be­lieve may be able to as­sist with the case.

Jemi­ma, who lived with rel­a­tives at Sea Lots, Port-of-Spain, was tak­en to the Wendy Fitzwilliam Pae­di­atric Hos­pi­tal on Oc­to­ber 9, af­ter she was found un­re­spon­sive at home.

De­spite at­tempts by med­ical per­son­nel to re­sus­ci­tate her up­on ar­rival, she was de­clared dead.

Ini­tial re­ports claimed the girl choked on a mar­ble and died. —Jensen La Vende