Funeral of drowned Gasparillo girl, 3, in Tunapuna

The funeral for drowned three-year-old Maria Khan takes place on Tuesday in Tunapuna.

The girl’s grieving mother Mary Mahabir, 22, confirmed this on Monday but did not give details, saying she preferred media do not attend.

"I do not want media coverage," she politely told Newsday.

Maria, who lived with her mother, great-grandparents, and great uncle in Gasparillo, would have turned four in September.

Mahabir had told Newsday that on the afternoon of April 4, she went to the bathroom and left Maria alone and playing with a toy car in a bedroom at the family’s home in Maharaj Trace.

When she was finished, she checked on the girl, but she was not there.

Mahabir said she looked outside and saw her daughter motionless in the inflated pool in the front yard.

Mahabir said she immediately took the child out of the pool and started to do CPR as she called for an ambulance.

The girl was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital where doctors later declared her dead.

An autopsy concluded Maria had drowned.

In January 2020, Maria’s father Roger Khan, 23, was shot dead at his home at Ecclesville in Rio Claro. Gunmen passed relatives in the house and shot him while he was asleep. To date, the killers remain at large.