An 11-year-old girl is among a group of minors that police have taken into custody as the main suspects in the death of the teen whose body was found half naked on Sion Hill Bay on Monday.
Police are yet to issue a statement on the killing but two separate sources confirmed the information to iWitness News on Tuesday.
On Monday, police launched a homicide investigation into the death of Matthew Da Souza, 13, of Fair Hall after his body was found on the beach naked from the waist down with apparent injuries to the head.
Da Souza had a history of begging on the street of Kingstown and the fact that the body was half naked resulted in speculation that he might have been sexually assaulted and killed.
However, one source told iWitness News on Tuesday that at least two boys and a girl, aged 11, all with a history of running away from home, had said that they were present when Da Souza suffered what might have been the fatal blow on Sunday.
The source said that one of the children had said that an argument broke out among them while they were swimming at the beach.
One of the male children is alleged to have taken something and struck Da Souza in the head while they were in the water.
After receiving the blow, Da Souza is said to have begun “kicking up” in the water and the group dragged him onto the beach and they all left him there.
The source said that based on the information from the children, the group was made up of three or four boys and an 11-year-old girl.
The information was communicated to police who took the group into custody in Kingstown Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, a separate source told iWitness News on Tuesday that the girl has been identified as the person who struck Da Souza in the head.
The allegation is that the girl struck the teen in the head with a stone then held him down in the water.
iWitness News was reliably informed that two teenage minors, both males, had told police that they were present when the incident happened.
iWitness News understands that in addition to a history of running away from home, the girl is said to be a close relative of a teenage girl who was murdered recently.
Da Souza’s death is the fourth homicide in St. Vincent since Friday, bringing the total to 34 this year.
Meanwhile, police said on Monday that a suspect was helping with their investigation into the stabbing death of Elijah Crease, a 34-year-old labourer, of Prospect.
Crease died on Monday at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, in Kingstown, where he was taken after being stabbed in Calliaqua, allegedly by another man.
Separately, on Sunday, about 2 a.m., police who responded to a report of a fatal shooting in Petit Bordel found the body of Othnell Lavia, 37, a farmer of Petit Bordel, with multiple gunshot wounds.
Lavia’s death was the second killing in the North Leeward town last weekend.
It followed that, on Friday, of Stanron Stapleton, 29, a labourer of Rose Hall,
Police said they responded about 10:42 p.m. to a report of a shooting in Petit Bordel.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Stapleton was approached by an unknown assailant while on the block.
The assailant opened fire, causing Stapleton to flee into a nearby compound, where he was shot multiple times, police said.
Investigators are asking anyone with information about these deaths to call police emergency at 999 or 911; police control at (784) 457-1211 or the Criminal Investigations Department or Major Crimes Unit at (784) 456-1810.
SVG needs to reintroduce the death penalty. That’s one way to reduce the crime rate or no killer should leave the prison alive. And hard labour means they will be isolated for life. This false hope of hoping they would change after serving 20 years is just that a false hope.
very sad D educational revolution has failed them,. remembering that no child must be left behind but how many more will be failed by this .