Saleesha, dad’s murders ‘an inside job’

This was the consensus among residents of Mamoral still reeling from the brutal murder of the little girl and her father.

“An inside job” was how one resident described the killings. “How they know where to find him (Solomon)? He wasn’t supposed to be there and the child Saleesha was supposed to sleep with her great-grandmother, so how they know he there?” he asked with tears in his eyes.

Police reports state that sometime between Thursday night and early Friday morning, the murderers shot Saleesha in her neck while her father was shot twice in his stomach as they slept in the two room wooden house at Leekham Road in Mamoral. The child’s body was then turned face down on the bed where she was sleeping.

Their bodies were found at about 3.30 am after the girl’s mother tried calling Solomon’s cellphone for him to pick her up from work at a casino. When he failed to answer, she called relatives who lived nearby to check on him. It was then the gruesome discovery was made.

Saleesha, also called Mama, was a first-year student at Caparo Roman Catholic School and lived with her mother Kernisha Bissoon, 22. Residents spoke in hushed tones yesterday, preferring not to reveal their identities for fear of reprisals. A group of elderly men expressed outrage that someone would dare to murder an innocent child and some declared it was the worst thing that had ever happened in quiet, rural agricultural community.

Others spoke lovingly of the child, describing her as beautiful and saying she had gone to be with God. “ I couldn’t function for the whole day when I see they bring out her body,” said a resident. “I cried that someone would do that to a child.” A relative said one month ago, Bissoon lost her mother and to now face this double tragedy is very hard on the family.

“The sad thing is nothing will come out of this because we are poor people,” she cried.

At Leekham Road yesterday, no one was at home and the house remained opened, a scene of desolation.

Relatives say Bissoon had gone to make funeral arrangements.

Police say a drug lord in Enterprise is being linked to the killings as they continue in