Post by HOPE on May 21, 2006 9:16:41 GMT -5
Maria Greenidge loved Carnival and had been practising diligently with the Couva Joylanders Steel Orchestra for performances on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
But her hard work has turned out to have been in vain.
Greenidge, who turned 17 last month, was found dead in some bushes at Camden Road, Couva, yesterday morning. Her body bore marks of violence, and her jewelry and shoes were missing.
Yesterday evening, Greenidge's father, Daniel, said he was trying to come to terms with the killing of his youngest child.
Seated in the porch of their home at Greenidge Street, Beaucarro Road, Carapichaima, he said his daughter loved music and had been playing steelpan for the last four years.
Daniel said his wife, Patsy, dropped off their daughter and some of her friends at the panyard on Friday night as was customary. He said there was an arrangement for a car to pick her up and drop her off after practice.
"But practice finished early so they went to see a queen show in Couva, opposite the police station," he said.
One of Greenidge's friends reportedly saw her getting into a vehicle to go home shortly after midnight.
But she never made it there. A passer-by discovered her body in the bushes near the heliport, around 10.50 a.m.
Daniel, a former policeman, said he and his wife became very worried when their daughter did not return home.
"But we knew you have to wait 24 hours before you could make a report. We call all her friends she would usually stay by, but she was not with any of them," he said.
By morning, Daniel said, they decided to report Greenidge missing. A few hours later, while working on a roof of a building in Couva, he received a call from the police asking him to come to the station.
"I knew by that they found her but I didn't expect to see her dead. When I got there they showed me her body behind the police station," he said.
Daniel said when he saw his daughter's body he noticed bruises and that a silver bracelet she usually wore, as well as her sneakers, were missing.
"She was a very jolly person but she was a tomboy, she would have fought back," he said.
Daniel, however, does not believe robbery was the motive for his daughter's killing, but that it may be connected to another murder case, the inquest for which is being conducted at the Port of Spain Magistrates' Court.
"She had been getting some bad phone calls in the night and I told the prosecutor about them," he said.
"I want the police to get to the bottom of this. I want them to find my child's killer," he said.
Cpl McKenzie, of the Couva CID, is continuing investigations.