DNA confirms worst nightmare of missing Danette Pierre’s family

IN spite of swirling rumours that the skeletal remains found in a burnt car in Claxton Bay on January 28 were those of Danette Pierre, her family was not expecting confirmation on Wednesday.

Police suspected from the time the car was discovered at Cedar Hill Road, Forres Park, Claxton Bay, that the remains were those of 31-year-old Pierre, who went missing on the same date.

Relatives identified jewellery found in the car as hers from photographs shown to them.

DNA samples were taken from Pierre’s parents, Donna and Dave Pierre, on February 5 and submitted to the Forensic Science Centre for sampling, after an autopsy failed to determine the gender of the remains, but concluded the person was burnt alive.

DNA tests proved a 100 per cent match with the remains found in the car.

The Mazda 3 sedan was reportedly stolen from the Sangre Grande district in mid-January.

Pierre’s sister Dianne, the eldest of five siblings, told the Newsday on Thursday morning their worst nightmare was realised when police visited her mother on Wednesday afternoon to confirm the findings.

“It’s not what we were expecting,” Dianne said as Pierre’s youngest child screamed in the background.

She said the family was still trying to come to term with the news.

Pierre left the family’s home at Hibiscus Drive, Petite Morne Settlement, Ste Madeleine, around 8.30 pm on September 28, after receiving a telephone call.

The mother of three, dressed very casually, told her mother she was “making a turn” and would be back soon.

She never returned. Calls to her phone went unanswered. A report was made to the Ste Madeleine Police station the next morning.

Using her cellphone records, several persons of interest, including a man who had made a call to her cell phone before she disappeared have been questioned.

Cellphones have been seized from these persons of interest and are being analysed by the police Cybercrime Unit.