Five-year-old Solisha Faith Joseph, who was killed along with her father Solomon Joseph at their Mamoral No 1 home early yesterday, was apparently tucked back in bed to make it look as though she was asleep by the same person who shot her in the neck.
“Who killed my innocent grandchild? Why did they have to kill her like that?” Solisha’s grandfather Peter Joseph, 61, said yesterday.
Solisha was a First Year pupil of the Caparo RC Primary School. She would have celebrated her sixth birthday in July.
Autopsies conducted on both bodies revealed little Solisha was shot once and her father twice in the back, with the bullets exiting through his abdomen. The autopsies were done by pathologist Hughvon Des Vignes at the Forensic Science Centre in St James.
The incident took place at the family’s Leekham Road home some time between 3 am and 4 am.
Peter said it was a living nightmare for him to discover his 36-year-old son and granddaughter dead. Initially, he said they thought Solomon was drunk and may have slipped into a deep sleep and his granddaughter was also sound asleep.
He explained that shortly before 4 am he received a phone call from a relative of his daughter-in-law Kernisha Joseph, that she was trying to reach Solomon and was panicking because she was waiting on him to pick her up from work. Kernisha is employed at a casino in Chaguanas and Solomon was expected to pick her up at 3 am.
“My wife and I immediately went down by the house and when we walked in we saw one of Solomon’s foot on top the mattress and the rest of his body lying on the floor, so we thought he would have fallen and might have remained right there and fallen asleep. I saw Solisha lying on the mattress in a crouched position and said to myself that she was real sleeping too, so I just pulled the blanket over her,” the distraught grandfather said.
“As I reached over and grab my son’s hands to pull him to fix him on the mattress I realised that his hands were very cold. That was when I say but like this man dead? I called the police and told them something wrong.”
Peter said he called the police and told them his son was dead but his granddaughter was sleeping on the nearby mattress, the police told him he could pick her up and move her until they got to the house.
“It was when I pick her up I realised that she too was cold and that there was blood by her neck. I can’t believe this! How this could happen? Why they had to kill the child too?” Peter said.
The T&T Guardian understands that Joseph and some other men allegedly assaulted a man described as a “village bully” late last year. Joseph and the men were arrested and charged and the matter is currently before the courts.
Asked yesterday if he believes that incident may be linked to his son’s murder, Peter replied: “Right now anything is possible, because in that same incident it had a gun play and all of them had gotten locked up and they spent some time inside. It may be linked yes, but other than that we don’t know why anyone would have wanted him dead.”
Peter said his son was a family man and he last saw him on Thursday evening.
“He was by me and he bathe and stuff and said that he was going by his wife and would check me in the morning (yesterday). That was the last thing he said to me. He was so loving and worked very hard. About three years ago he even started building his own house right next to mine here.”
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Solisha’s great grandmother, Catherine Sorillo-Bissoon, 77, who was seen crying uncontrollably at the crime scene yesterday, said her great granddaughter was killed on the eve of her own birthday.
“Last night Solisha say she was sleeping with me but I don’t know what happen. She and her father was here by me watching TV and it look like when he get up to go by his house (which is located adjacent to hers) she followed him.
“That child was always with me. Anywhere the father and mother going she would remain home here with me. Every night she would sleep with me too. I just don’t know how come she went with her daddy. They kill she for nothing. I crying whole time for she. She aint do nothing.”
A villager, who wished not to be identified said everyone from the area was shocked and traumatised.
“Here is a real nice place where all of us live as one big family. It never have nothing like that going on here. We shock.
“Imagine, a child they kill just so! What that little child could have done or seen so? Maybe she saw who attacked her father and could have identified the person that is why they killed her too, only God knows, yes, only He knows but this is so sad.”
Investigating officers are expected to view footage from surveillance cameras from a popular business establishment in the area in a bid to source any information that may help in their investigations. Police said they received information that at about 4 am two cars were spotted speeding along the main road to the direction of the Caparo Main Road.
Investigations are continuing.
The murder toll stood at 166 up to yesterday.
