Mother identifies clothes on body

Sheryl Small, mother of missing Dauphine resident Shanika Small, has confirmed that the clothes on the decomposed body found in Dauphine-Welcome area on October 30, are those of her daughter.{{more}}

This was disclosed yesterday, by Commissioner of Police Keith Miller, at a media conference at the Police Conference room in Kingstown.

Miller also told reporters that a post mortem examination performed on the significantly decomposed body, revealed two fractures to the skull of the female.

When the body was found, Small’s mother, who was present at the scene, was not able to say if the pieces of clothing found did in fact belong to her daughter.

However, on Friday, November 4, after the clothing had been cleaned, the mother, who resides in Canada, was invited to take a second look at the items, and she identified them as belonging to her daughter.

When quizzed about how Small was able to determine that the clothes belonged to her daughter, Miller said the woman told police that Shanika is very specific about her clothing.

“The mother said Shanika will hardly want to know that someone is wearing a piece of clothes that she has..,” Miller relayed.

Miller said the mother also indicated that she purchased clothes for her daughter Shanika at a particular store in Canada and that Shanika has clothing matching the ones found.

“On that basis, she is confident that the clothing we showed her is that of Shanika,” Miller added.

The Commissioner also indicated that it is a fact that the body is that of a female, but noted that DNA testing will be done to verify if the body is Shanika’s. “We think that this is not conclusive enough and because of that, samples were taken from the partly decomposed body, Shanika’s mother and a package of things relevant to the investigation to be sent off for testing…,” Miller said.

The Commissioner pointed out that he will be having discussions with scientists in Jamaica and Barbados to let them know that this is a “critical case” and says he will ask if they can speed up on testing of these items so they can have speedy results.

The corpse was discovered by Police around 8:30 am on October 30, on property owned by local businessman Ken Minors, a short distance from the Fenton mountain.

Just recently, a man was picked up and questioned by police, but he has since been released.

The 20-year-old woman was last seen alive on October 21, 2011.(KW)