American schoolgirl killed in Tobago

Kitty Nikole Pepe, a Form One student of the Speyside Secondary School, was said to have been found in an apartment at Top River, Charlotteville, where she resided with her mother Heather, around 11.30 pm on Friday night, in a semi-nude condition with stab wounds to her abdomen and right eye.

The Charlotteville Police and villagers were yesterday searching for a 22-year-old man from the village in connection with the murder. Their landlord, Kenton Greene reported hearing muffled screams coming from the apartment where Kitty was home alone, shortly after 11 pm and went to enquire when he encountered a locked door. Greene said he peeped through a crack in the door where he saw the man standing over Pepe.

He said the young man, who frequently visited the apartment, subsequently emerged from the apartment and approached him with a "blade" in his right hand.

"About three times he said ‘come leh me show you a scene nah’ but I was not armed, and afraid, so I ran upstairs to arm myself but when I came back I saw him running down the hill," he related. Greene then alerted the Charlotteville police who have since been working on the theory of a love relationship gone sour. Kitty and Heather have been residing in Tobago for approximately two years.

Meanwhile, police are investigating the circumstances which led to the death of 35-year-old Kirk Murray. Murray of Laventille, who resided at Glamorgan east Tobago, was reportedly discovered with chop wounds about the body in the vicinity of the Scarborough Market Square late Thursday night.

He was rushed to the Scarborough Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries on Friday night. He was the island’s fifth murder victim for the year.

Police are also searching for a man who reportedly stabbed a young woman about the body on Friday afternoon.

Reports indicate that 23-year-old Liselle Quash was attacked by the man whom she knew along an infrequently used roadway at Sangster’s Hill, lower Scarborough, and was stabbed about the face and neck. The assailant reportedly fled the scene when an alarm was raised.

The murder toll for 2005 has already surpassed that of last year when there were a total of four murders.