The parents of six-year-old Keyana Cumberbatch are pleading with the public to help them find their child who went missing on Monday afternoon. Cumberbatch’s mother Simone Williams, who spoke with members of the media at her Building 4, Maloney Gardens, home yesterday, said her child was last seen with a male relative while on her way to her grandmother’s house.
Williams said her daughter had done what she normally does: Get home from St Barbara's Shouter Baptist Primary School, change her clothes and go to her grandmother’s house with her younger sister, three-year-old Briana Lewis. The girls left their home and were on their way to their grandmother’s house at Building 17, just across the road, Williams said. The girls were last seen talking to a male relative. Briana made it to her grandmother’s while Keyana, a second-year pupil, has not been seen since.
The male relative is in police custody assisting with their investigations. Williams said the police told her the matter was being treated as a homicide. When the T&T Guardian arrived at the house, police K9 sniffer dogs were just being bundled into a vehicle and two crime scene vehicles, usually seen on murder scenes, were parked outside. Williams said she found out her elder child was missing around 6 pm when she called to ask how her children were doing.
Williams, who works at Club Princess, Port-of-Spain, said she was told that Keyana was not at her grandmother’s and only her sister was there. After frantic searches in the neighbourhood and calls to the male relative, the family called police at the Maloney Police Post who detained the man. Williams said she had not slept since her daughter went missing. Police from the Maloney post and officers from the Northern Division are investigating.