Stepmother who tried to kill boy strangled

Two years ago Salina Sahadath, 27, of Quinam Road, Penal, was charged with attempting to murder her six-year-old stepson Nicholai Siewnarine by beating him on the head with a wheel spanner and attempting to run him down with her car.

She was out on bail on Saturday when her body was found on the Priority Bus Route in the vicinity of Olton Road, Arima. She had been strangled. The incident with the stepson occurred on April 10 2002, and on August 20 last year she was committed to stand trial in the High Court for the offence. An autopsy yesterday at the Forensic Science Lab re-vealed that Sahadath had been strangled and her body dumped on the Priority Bus Route.

A 45-year-old man of Siparia who Sahadath knew was detained by homicide detectives, who up to last night were questioning him. The body was identified yesterday by her mother Zalina at the Forensic Science Centre. Her car was found intact at San Fernando on Saturday night. Sahadath’s mother said that her daughter left home on Saturday evening saying that she was going to Penal. When she failed to return home, relatives became worried. On Sunday, while looking at the news on television, relatives saw a news report of a body of a woman found on the Bus Route in the vicinity of Olton Road, Arima. The description of the victim matched that of Sahadath and police officers from the Arima CID were contacted.

On April 10, 2002, Saha-dath, a former waitress, allegedly picked the boy up from school, and drove him to a lonely place at Scott’s Road Penal. She allegedly gagged him with his socks, tied his hands with his shoe laces and began beating him on his head with a wheel spanner. He managed to run away from her but she pursued him in her car and attempted to run him down. He was rescued by a farmer and an icecream vendor who took him to hospital.

At the time of the incident, Nicholai was living with his father Ramesh Seecharan and Sahadath at Barrackpore. Nicholai’s mother, Reena, had migrated to the USA but immediately returned to Trinidad to be with her son while he was being treated in hospital. Nicholai is now living with his mother.