RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A sus­pect in the kid­nap­ping and mur­der of O’delle Lal­man-Bap­tiste has not yet been ar­rest­ed, even as rel­a­tives make fi­nal prepa­ra­tions for her fu­ner­al on Sat­ur­day.

Her three-year-old son is in the care of rel­a­tives while po­lice con­tin­ue their in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Lal­man-Bap­tiste was kid­napped on Fri­day night while trav­el­ling with her hus­band in the Carlsen Field area. Po­lice said Bap­tiste had stopped to uri­nate around 11 pm when two armed men ap­proached, robbed them, and took his wife. Po­lice ini­tial­ly stat­ed that her body bore stab wounds. How­ev­er, an au­top­sy lat­er re­vealed that she died from a sin­gle gun­shot wound to the head.

Her body was dis­cov­ered ap­prox­i­mate­ly two kilo­me­tres from the scene of the ab­duc­tion. In­ves­ti­ga­tors not­ed that Lal­man-Bap­tiste was still wear­ing her jew­ellery when her body was found.

Po­lice is­sued a bul­letin short­ly af­ter the kid­nap­ping and tracked the sus­pects’ get­away ve­hi­cle to Ari­ma. A shootout en­sued and one of the sus­pects was shot dead. The sec­ond sus­pect es­caped and re­mains on the run.

Her fu­ner­al will take place at the Bonasse RC Church on Sat­ur­day from 1 pm, fol­low­ing which she will be buried at the Bonasse Ceme­tery.

Po­lice con­tin­ue to ap­peal for in­for­ma­tion that could lead to the ar­rest of the sec­ond sus­pect.