KEVON FELMINE
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

Three weeks be­fore stran­gling sev­en-year-old McKen­zie Hope Rechi­er, the 25-year-old sus­pect con­fid­ed in a neigh­bour that she planned to kill the child and her­self.

Pa­lo Seco moth­er Michelle Alexan­der told Sun­day Guardian she quick­ly sought the as­sis­tance of po­lice and oth­er pub­lic of­fi­cials to help the sus­pect who bat­tled men­tal prob­lems. How­ev­er, that help nev­er came.

The makeshift home at Number 7 Road Extension, Palo Seco, where the child's body was found.

INNIS FRANCIS

Hor­ror struck the com­mu­ni­ty on Sat­ur­day morn­ing as the vi­sions of McKen­zie's frail and life­less body now haunt the minds of rel­a­tives and po­lice who found her on a soiled mat­tress in­side the 10x10 ft wood­en shack that she and the sus­pect called home.
“When you are in big places, and you have mon­ey, they come and talk to you. But these are poor peo­ple in these ar­eas, so we do not get as­sis­tance when it is need­ed,” Alexan­der said.
Short­ly af­ter mid­night Sat­ur­day, San­ta Flo­ra po­lice, WPC Mon­segue and PC Aguillera re­spond­ed to a re­port of an in­ci­dent in­volv­ing a child at Num­ber 7 Road, Pa­lo Seco. There they met the sus­pect and oth­ers. In­side a dirty room, they found McKen­zie ly­ing in a foetal po­si­tion with a red­dish mark on her neck and her face swollen. They ar­rest­ed the sus­pect who re­mained at the San­ta Flo­ra Po­lice Sta­tion on Sat­ur­day.

A re­port stat­ed that the sus­pect left home around 4 pm on Fri­day af­ter call­ing a friend to take her to a gro­cery. She told her friend she want­ed to vis­it Imam Yasin at a Clax­ton Bay mosque. Af­ter ar­riv­ing around 10.20 pm, the sus­pect told Yasin that she had stran­gled McKen­zie at home. Yasin took her back home around 12.30 am yes­ter­day and con­tact­ed the po­lice. 
Speak­ing near her home, Alexan­der said McKen­zie of­ten came to her house to play. How­ev­er, she re­alised some­thing was wrong with McKen­zie and the sus­pect's be­hav­iours. When she in­quired, the sus­pect told her: “Al­lyuh would not see us just now. We would not be here soon.”

The room in which Mckenzie Hope Rechier's body was found.

Sus­pect­ing that things were se­ri­ous, Alexan­der plead­ed with her to speak out. The sus­pect twice con­fid­ed in Alexan­der that she thought about killing the child and her­self.
“She told me she had this feel­ing that she want­ed to kill her­self and the child. I asked 'What did this child ever do to you? What did that child do to you that you want to take her life? I said she is our fu­ture. She could be a lawyer, doc­tor, or po­lice. Why would you take that from her?'”

The sus­pect said she was tired of peo­ple us­ing and abus­ing her.
“She nev­er told me about any­body beat­ing her or any­thing like that. She said she was al­ways putting out every­thing for every­body, and she was not get­ting back any­thing in re­turn.”
Alexan­der said she and rel­a­tives took the sus­pect to church, and pas­tors prayed for her. Alexan­der said her mood pro­gressed, but in re­cent days, she re­gressed with a look of sur­ren­der and was dress­ing poor­ly.
McKen­zie's grand­moth­er Bren­da Per­sad said she did not like what the sus­pect did and al­most at­tacked her at the crime scene, but rel­a­tives held her back. Per­sad, who lives a few me­ters away, said she last spoke to the sus­pect and McKen­zie on Fri­day morn­ing be­fore head­ing to work, and every­thing seemed well.
How­ev­er, a com­mo­tion out­side her home short­ly af­ter mid­night woke her. McDaryl, a male close to the sus­pect, called out to her.
“Bren­da! Bren­da! You're not up? Al­lyuh don't know? Hope in­side the house. (name called) kill Hope and have her in the house. She came quite Pranz Gar­den and con­fessed,” McDaryl shout­ed.
With her sleep­wear on, Per­sad ran through the dark bushy track lead­ing to the house.
“I am call­ing my grand­child, and she is not an­swer­ing me. I did not know what to do again.”
Per­sad said the sus­pect came out of the room, act­ing nor­mal. Al­though the sus­pect did not tell Per­sad about do­mes­tic abuse, she learned about it. While po­lice heard ru­mours of men­tal ill­ness, Per­sad said the sus­pect suf­fered de­pres­sion af­ter the death of her two-month-old son in April 2016 from a bronchial in­fec­tion.

The sus­pect was al­so un­em­ployed but pre­vi­ous­ly sold food at Cross Cross­ing in San Fer­nan­do and did sweets box sales to make ends meet.
Per­sad said no one could stran­gle McKen­zie and get away. She said the sus­pect has to serve prison time. By mid­day, Per­sad had not slept and on­ly mus­tered a smile when de­scrib­ing McKen­zie, who loved get­ting her hair and nails done and spend­ing time at the beach.
“All I know is my princess gone. She will nev­er come back.”