Dad hugs closed casket of murdered daughter

Hugging the closed casket holding the body of his murdered daughter, father Neil Cupid was certain she had called out to him in her final moments.

“I sure she was calling her father – 'Daddy, Daddy!' I sure, I sure,” he wept.

Cupid was at the funeral of his 23-year-old daughter Tineil Cupid, at the JE Guide Funeral Home in San Fernando on Tuesday.

After hugging the casket for a few minutes, he walked around it, saying, "I want to see your face, I want to see your face.”

Cupid’s four-year-old son Jermaine stood next to his grandfather. Relatives said he was too young to understand.

A photograph of the mother of two stood on top of the casket.

Cupid was cremated after the service.

She was a labourer with the Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP).

On October 7 her body was found dumped near a WASA installation in Santa Flora, the day after she left home.

Three weeks ago before she disappeared Cupid had ended a three-year relationship.

Reports said on October 6, she left the family’s home at Easy Street, Fyzabad in a man's car, telling her mother she would return shortly.

That was the last time her mother Nathalie Manzano saw her. The next day she reported Cupid missing.

Police later detained a Siparia man. He remains in custody and is expected to be charged this week.