The slashed and decomposed body of a woman which was discovered this morning at Cummings Lodge has been identified as that of missing Sophia resident, Simone Hackett.
Relatives of Hackett who gathered at the scene positively identified her remains.
Hackett, 25, a mother of one was last seen alive by her relatives on Saturday around 8:30 pm when she left home to pick up a package sent by the father of her child.
The discovery was made by two schoolboys who were on their way to school.
Commander of `C’ Division Marlon Chapman confirmed that the matter is currently being treated as murder. He was unable to ascertain at the time if any arrest was made.
A chopper was recovered at the scene and it is suspected to be the murder weapon. Hackett’s throat was slashed and her head also bore three wounds.
The day she went missing was one day before her sister’s wedding where she was to have been maid of honour and one day before her only child’s second birthday.
An aunt had explained to Stabroek News that on Saturday evening around 7.30, Hackett received a call from a “Dexter” requesting that she leave to pick up the package which was being sent for her son’s birthday by his father. She was expecting a quantity of cash and some raw gold to make jewellery for the child.
She left home around 8.30 pm.
However, some two hours later she called her father’s phone which was answered by her sister. “She told her sister that she is at UG Embankment Road after she was requested by Dexter to stand there after he changed his direction, and he [Dexter] was taking too long to come so she wanted to come home and she knew her father was nearby at the Giftland Mall so she was asking him to pick her up while he was going home but he did already reach home,” the distraught aunt recalled.
The aunt said after that calls went to Hackett’s phone went unanswered. “One time we got a call… [but] didn’t hear anyone saying anything, just some breeze like she was in a moving vehicle,” she stated.
The matter was reported to the Turkeyen Police Station and the aunt said she even visited Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum’s office yesterday in order to highlight the matter. “He was very cooperative and he assured us that the matter will be thoroughly investigated,” she stated.
However, she added that based on information she received the father of Hackett’s child, “doesn’t even know where this guy Dexter lives or where we can find him or anything. He just said he knows him because he works sometimes in Mahdia.”
The aunt explained that Hackett and the father of her child had been involved in a dispute over custody of the two-year-old. She said, “One time he even take away the child to Mahdia and she [Hackett] had to go and bring him back to Georgetown.” She said her niece had worked in a shop in the interior and at one point in time, the man had hid Hackett’s passport and other documents so that she would be unable to return home.
“We have walked all over yesterday, the seawall, hospitals, mortuary everywhere, every time we hear of an accident we just rushing to see if it’s her because we are just clueless as to where she is and if she alright,” the weeping aunt had told this newspaper.
