Cops: No file sent to DPP for Savanna's murder yet

Of the 181 people murdered thus far for the year, 20 have been women.

In one of the latest incidents, 21-year-old Savanna Dyer was found dead on June 14.

She had been liming with friends at Nari's Bar in Barataria on June 13. During this, she was seen leaving in a black car.

Her semi-nude body was found in some bushes on Carlsen Field Road the next morning.

Two men had surrendered to the police days later.

While the two suspects are in custody, the case has not yet been presented to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC, for any potential charges to be laid.

A senior police source in the Homicide Bureau of Investigations told Newsday on June 20 that the investigations were still ongoing.

Similarly, on April 19, a nurse was kidnapped during a suspected carjacking in Carlsen Field and found dead nearby roughly 12 hours after the crime.

O’delle Lalman-Baptiste, 30, a registered nurse at the Point Fortin Hospital and mother of a three-year-old, was taken away at gunpoint around 11 pm on April 18.

Police said her husband, 29-year-old Point Fortin car dealer Matthias Baptiste, had stopped his van along Hospital Road, Carlsen Field, to urinate when a black Nissan X-Trail pulled alongside and two men armed with guns approached.

The couple were robbed of $1,500 and two cellphones. The men drove off with the car dealer’s van with Lalman-Baptiste still inside.

Police told Newsday her body was found at the side of the road a short distance from where she was taken.

Investigators believed Lalman-Baptiste was killed shortly after she was taken and thrown out of the van.

Around midnight on April 18, police intercepted the stolen van after tracking it using its GPS device.

During a chase, the van veered off the highway near the Eastern Correction Rehabilitation Centre, Santa Rosa, and crashed in a ditch.

Police said two men came out and shot at them. Police shot back and hit one of the suspects.

He was taken to the Arima General Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The other suspect escaped.

In May, police said investigations were still ongoing.

Minutes after Dyer's body was found in Carlsen Field, a 71-year-old woman was being stabbed to death by her son in Brazil Village. She was Elizabeth Ettienne. Samuel Ettienne was charged on June 18 as he appeared before a Master of the High Court.

On February 20, Durpatee Chance, 64, was found dead in her bedroom at the family's home at the Moruga Main Road around 5 am.

Chance was also believed to have been sexually assaulted as a cord was found around her neck, her feet were tied and her underwear pulled down.

Her 71-year-old husband was also beaten and tied up in a nearby room, but survived the ordeal.

No one was arrested.

Last year, 40 women were murdered throughout the country.