The autopsy for 74-year-old Doodhani Vishvati Sooknanan has been postponed again as no relatives were present to positively identify her body at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday, police sources said.
Sooknanan’s decomposing body was found under a bed at her family’s Torenia Drive, Edinburgh 500, Chaguanas home on January 8, as officers of the Central Division conducted a welfare check at the home.
Sooknanan’s daughter and granddaughter were in the house at the time of the incident; however, her daughter told officers that “she had not seen her mother.”
The autopsy was originally expected to be done on Monday; however, the body was not brought to the Forensic Science Centre.
Yesterday, Sooknanan’s body was brought to the facility, but officers and funeral home workers were informed that it could not be done unless a relative was present to make an identification, confirming it was, in fact, her.
By 10.15 am, Sooknanan’s body was loaded into the removal van and returned to the funeral home for storage until further instructions from police.
An official at the Forensic Science Centre, who did not wish to be named, said that unless the body could be formally identified as that of Sooknanan, it would remain in the system and be designated as a ‘Jane Doe.’
Police said a preliminary post-mortem could sometimes be done before official identification, but this depends on the pathologist’s discretion.
Police from the Region III Homicide Bureau are assisting with enquiries. —Shane Superville
