Homi­cide and se­nior Cen­tral Di­vi­sion of­fi­cers were at Cashew Gar­dens, Long­denville, late last night where the body of miss­ing 13-year-old Joash Pan­tin was found.

Pan­tin’s body was found in some bush­es a few me­tres away from his home in an area known as “Cashew on the Hill” around 8 pm.

Speak­ing with the T&T Guardian last night a res­i­dent, who wished not to be named, said she knew Pan­tin well. She said the chil­dren in the com­mu­ni­ty said they last saw him on Sat­ur­day when he went to the com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre to play foot­ball, a rou­tine for him.

The res­i­dent said Pan­tin came from a hum­ble home.

“He was one of the lov­ing and kind­est chil­dren you would have ever come across. So, in­tel­li­gent. He was very in­ter­est­ed in sci­ence and ro­bot­ics and could have told you ex­act­ly how a he­li­copter op­er­ates,” the res­i­dent said.

“At first when he moved in­to the area he nev­er talked that much but as he start­ed to come by the com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre and be­gan in­ter­act­ing with the kids around he even­tu­al­ly set­tled in and set­tled in very nice­ly. He be­came so talk­a­tive and very in­quis­i­tive in learn­ing new things.”

Pan­tin was last seen at about 7.30 pm on Sat­ur­day and was re­port­ed miss­ing to the Long­denville Po­lice Post on Sun­day by his moth­er and grand­moth­er.

A par­ty of po­lice of­fi­cers in­clud­ing ASP Wayne Mys­tar was on the scene. The Dis­trict Med­ical Of­fi­cer (DMO) viewed the body and or­dered its re­moval to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre where an au­top­sy will be con­duct­ed.

A se­nior of­fi­cer said they are not rul­ing out any mo­tive at this time but said the boy suf­fered from asth­ma and was re­port­ed­ly known to get se­ri­ous at­tacks at times. The of­fi­cer said the DMO could de­ter­mine a cause of death as the body was in an ad­vanced state of de­com­po­si­tion.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.