Thirteen-year-old Basmattie Moonsammy of Woodley Park Village, West Coast Berbice is suspected to have been raped and murdered after her decomposing body was discovered in a rice field aback of the village yesterday morning.
The body was clad in a black bra with the skirt and underwear pulled down to her knees. A string was also tied tightly around her neck.
The girl also called ‘Manda,’ a student of the secondary department of the Woodley Park Primary School, left home on Sunday afternoon and was never heard from again.
Her mother, Padmoutie ‘Padma’ Dyall, 44, a domestic worker had reported her missing to the Fort Wellington Police Station.
Rice farmer, Maniram Jainauth was working in his rice field around 10.30 am when he stumbled upon the body that was partially buried in the mud.
The body was turned face down and only the mid-section was visible.
Jainauth, who could not tell if it was that of a male or a female, immediately called his wife, Sunita, and asked her to contact the police.
Sunita then informed Dyall, her employee about the body, knowing that that the woman’s daughter was missing. Dyall headed to the backdam one-and-a-half miles away but she could not tell if it was her daughter or not.
The police took a while before they arrived and were given a ride to the scene on Jainauth’s tractor/ trailer.
When they arrived they washed the mud off the face of the corpse, but because of its decomposed state it was difficult for the woman to tell if those were the remains of her daughter. After they washed a bit more, she recognized the skirt the girl was wearing.
The woman’s brother, Motilall Dyall said his sister called his wife on Monday to inform her that the girl was missing. His wife advised him to make a report to the police.
Persons said that at first it did not seem strange that the girl was missing because she was in the habit of leaving home and returning the following morning.
There are also reports that because the mother was always struggling to make ends meet she was not always around to supervise her children. Apart from Basmattie she has a 10-year-old boy and a mentally challenged teenage girl.
Basmattie was also said to have been in the company of older boys, including one who was acquitted for the rape/murder of another 13-year-old girl from the village about four years ago.
