Relatives of suspect held for teen's death: He kept asking, 'What have I done?'

RELATIVES of a man, said to be a member of the regiment, have revealed that after he allegedly beat a teenage female relative, who then fell down a flight of stairs and later died, he kept asking himself, "What have I done?"

The 36-year-old man remained in police custody up to Wednesday.

Speaking at the Forensic Science Centre in St James on Wednesday, Vanessa Augustine said after her daughter Alliyah Kandice Alexander was found unresponsive at the foot of the stairs, the male relative stood in shock.

“He kept asking me, 'Vanessa, what I do? What have I done?' I just held my child, who was already unresponsive,” Augustine said.

Police reported that at about 4.10 pm on Tuesday, a nurse at the Couva Health Centre contacted Couva police saying a teenage girl was brought to the centre by a male relative and had died while being treated.

Police said the initial report they received was that the 15-year-old Form Four student of Couva West Secondary School, was beaten with a belt by a man and she fell down a flight of stairs.

Vanessa, who is five months pregnant and lives in Enterprise, Chaguanas, said she dropped off her daughter at the man’s home in Claxton Bay on Tuesday afternoon. Less than 30 minutes later, she got a call and went back to the house to find her daughter lying on the ground and unresponsive.

Augustine said the man was planning to take Alliyah and his family to Tobago on Thursday and was recently promoted in the TT Regiment.

Vanessa said she never saw the man beat Alliyah before.

“If I beat them, he used to get vex with me, in fact,” she said, adding that he never beat either of his two children. Alliyah's grandmother Elicia Gueverra said she has already forgiven him.

“He is in God’s hand now. We put him in God’s hands.

"We are just trying to deal with the situation. This is a bitter tablet the Lord has given to us to swallow. And right now, it just not going down our throats. To hold something against him? No, we can’t,” Gueverra said.

Gueverra also said the man had never beaten his children in the past.

"He didn’t even pinch then. He never beat them. He used to threaten and frighten them, but that was it. I don’t know what tripped him and that is why I find it so hard to understand what happened," Gueverra said.

She said Alliyah, who would have turned 16 on May 29, was a respectful child who had a YouTube channel, KK Kandy, which she used to promote Christianity.

An autopsy has been scheduled at the Forensic Science Centre and investigations are continuing.