[UPDATED] Outrage over Princes Town siblings' murder: 'Let him rot in prison'

"Let him rot in the prison." That is the only fate fitting for the suspect in the murder of siblings Shenelle, 16, and Keston Singh, 21, according to Marisa Cooper, a designated spokesman for residents of Naggee Trace, Princes Town.

The siblings were killed on the evening of September 4 around the corner from Cooper's house.

Shenelle was found dead at the side of the road with chop wounds. Residents believe she tried to escape her attacker. Following a trail of her blood, police later found her brother dead on a couch in the home of their suspected killer with chop wounds to his neck.

Gathered around Cooper's home, on September 5 residents were still trying to come to terms with the events that befell their community hours earlier.

Cooper was among those who discovered Shenelle's body in the road. She said villagers were traumatised and many children were unable to attend school. She said even she could not go to work after what unfolded.

"I know the children and them. That little young girl (Shenelle) would pass here, she would talk to everybody. She would show everybody love.

"That boy (Keston) does go to work. He is a working fella.

"You could see you could have never separated the two. Respectable children...they didn't deserve that death."

Police were unable to find the suspect on September 4, but detained him on the morning of September 5 after residents reported he had returned.

Cooper told reporters they contacted police after he returned to the area asking for help.

"He still come here this morning thinking we go harbour him and we go keep him and saying that how he ain't finish do what he have to do yet, he have real people to kill still and he was going this morning to kill he father."

She said residents stalled the suspect by "holding him in a talk" until police could arrive and apprehend him around 8 am.

Cooper described the suspect as a "menace" to the community who had had previous run-ins with the law.

"He ain't have a mental problem...he is a nasty, dutty, stink, wicked fella. That is the type of fella (he is)....He have to go down."

She accused the suspect of stealing, attacking neighbours and threatening to kill them. It's why she and other residents believe he needs to be incarcerated for good.

"He have nothing good in him. Let him rot in the prison. He have to rot there."

Sitting at her Mayaro home, the siblings' grandmother, Margaret Ragbir, 63, told reporters Keston recently began renting in the area, and Shenelle would often visit him.

She said Shenelle left her home on August 31 to stay with her brother, and was expected to return home on the night of September 4 after buying a pair of shoes to return to classes at the Mayaro Secondary School.

Ragbir said her daughter was struggling to cope with the loss of her children and questioned why someone would kill them.

"If somebody do something like that, they really don't love nobody. People don't love nobody in this time.

"Look how many murders taking place. We is not the only ones losing our family. It have many other people losing their family too. All we can do is just mourn."

Complaining further about the runaway crime in the country, Ragbir also called for the full weight of the law to be exacted against the suspect.

While saying vengeance belongs to God, she said she would pray for him to exact it on the man who stole her grandchildren from her.

She said Keston recently got a job as a security guard and Shenelle had dreams of following in the footsteps of her other brother, who will graduate as a doctor next month. She said Shenelle wanted to go into the medical field too, as a nurse.

Also expressing outrage was Moruga/Tableland MP Michelle Benjamin, who called on the authorities to take immediate action to curb crime in her constituency. She demanded an increase in police patrols, increased staffat police stations and more efforts to engage youth in positive activities.

"I am calling on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to instruct his Ministers of National Security to treat the safety of Moruga/Tableland as a priority. How many more lives must be lost before this government takes the necessary action? We cannot continue living in fear. The time for talk is over – we need action, and we need it now."

The siblings' murders were the first of five murders in Southern Trinidad between September 4 and 5. In the second incident, three people were killed at Icacos beach around 2 am on September 5 and three Venezuelans were injured.

This story was originally published with the title "Siblings chopped to death in Princes Town" and has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

Police are probing the murder of two siblings in New Grant on September 4.

Police said officers responded to a call of a female body on the road at Naggee Road, Princes Town around 7 pm.They found the woman with a chop wound on her face and blood on her clothes. She was identified as Shenelle Singh, 17, of Peter Hill Trace, Mayaro.

Following a blood trail back to a small wooden house ten feet away, the officers discovered her brother, Kervon Singh, 21, dead on the couch with an apparent chop wound to the neck.

The district medical officer visited and pronounced the siblings dead. Their bodies were removed pending an autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre, St James.

Police are searching for the owner of the house in connection with the murders.