Police are investigating the alleged murder of six-year-old Orlando Jaikarran following the discovery of a partially decomposed child’s body in the Waterloo Main Canal, West Coast Berbice, on Tuesday.
Two men are in custody, police said in an updated statement, which disclosed that preliminary investigations indicated the child had been taken to the canal and allegedly chopped to the neck with a cutlass.
The development came as Orlando’s mother, Navita Ramnarine, called for justice and said the father accused of killing him had obtained custody of their children after she left an abusive relationship.
Police said information obtained during investigations on Tuesday led a search party comprising ranks and civilians to the canal, where the body, suspected to be Orlando’s, was discovered.
An examination revealed that the head and portions of the left hand and right foot were missing, according to the statement.
The body was taken to the Bath Regional Hospital, where a doctor pronounced the child dead, and subsequently to Bailey’s Funeral Home to await formal identification and a post-mortem examination.
Region Five Commander, Senior Superintendent Lonsdale Whithrite, had earlier confirmed that a child’s body was recovered floating in a canal and identified Orlando’s father, Bharrat Jaikarran, as the main suspect. He described the location as the Sea Dam Canal at Water Street, Block D, Bath Settlement. The subsequent police statement identified it as the Waterloo Main Canal.
Earlier police reports indicated that Jaikarran had confessed to taking Orlando from his bed on October 14 and throwing him into the canal, knowing he could not swim. According to those reports, he told investigators that a pujari, or Hindu priest, had told him Orlando was not his child.
The updated outlined the allegation that the child had been chopped before the discovery of the body.
Speaking to the media while weeping, Ramnarine said she would “really miss my baby” and wanted the child’s father to remain in prison for the rest of his life.
“He is wrong to do that…as a father, you make a child and now you do that to a child,” she said, crying.
She said that if she saw Jaikarran, she would tell him he had been very cruel to the boy.
Ramnarine said they had shared a 12-year relationship during which he abused her. She initially took the children when she left, but Jaikarran subsequently sought custody through the court.
“He went to the court and he fight for them and I just give he them,” she said.
Ramnarine said she pays maintenance through the court, with payments sometimes amounting to $16,000 or $20,000. She had not checked on the children regularly because of their father’s behaviour, she said.
While she said Jaikarran had not abused the children during their relationship, she could not say whether they had subsequently been subjected to abuse.
Orlando’s brothers, aged seven and 10, are now in state care. Ramnarine said she hoped to take custody of them “when she settle in”.
The boy’s grandmother, Dhankumarie Gowkarran, also spoke to the media while weeping. The 65-year-old said she was shocked to learn that her son was accused of killing her grandson and that villagers were now shunning her.
“But is nah me mek he do it…me son does live he life, I don’t go by he,” she said.
Gowkarran said she asked her son three times whether he had harmed Orlando. He repeatedly denied doing so, and she believed him.
Recounting a telephone call on the day of the child’s disappearance, she said Jaikarran told her he had slept in the first room of the house while the children slept in the second. According to her, he said one of his other sons alerted him the following morning that Orlando could not be found.
Although she did not visit their home, Gowkarran said, the children visited her and told her their father cooked for them. They had never reported being hurt.
She said Jaikarran would prepare food before leaving early for work, and the children would later dress themselves for school.
Gowkarran said she had been unable to visit the two boys in state care.
The grandmother, who said she suffers from high blood pressure, pointed to a man accompanying her and said that without his support she would have already “fall down”.
“Nobody’s don’t want see me,” she said.
Villagers and members of the Hunters Search and Rescue Team from Trinidad had been searching for Orlando. Police also searched several locations in Bath, including surrounding backlands, and reviewed surveillance footage.
Investigations are continuing.
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