Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

The grand­moth­er of mur­dered six-year-old Kylie Mel­oney says the fam­i­ly con­tin­ues to re­cov­er slow­ly amid the grief, al­most 12 months af­ter her death.

Lit­tle Kylie was killed when gun­men stormed the Blake Av­enue, San­gre Grande, home of a rel­a­tive where she was asleep on the morn­ing of Jan­u­ary 8.

Kylie was the 12th mur­der vic­tim for 2023. Her moth­er was wound­ed in the at­tack but sur­vived.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors be­lieve a male rel­a­tive who was in the house at the time was the in­tend­ed tar­get of the killers.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at the fam­i­ly’s San­gre Grande home on Mon­day af­ter­noon, Kylie’s grand­moth­er Tri­cia Mel­oney said while life has con­tin­ued, a day has not passed when she has not thought about her grand­daugh­ter.

She said deal­ing with grief was a con­tin­u­ous process, but ad­mit­ted that some days are more chal­leng­ing than oth­ers.

“It had times where I just break down. It does be re­al hard know­ing she is not here to grow up. It had times where I was sit­ting in a taxi and I just had to say ‘Oh God’. The tears does just flow. It can’t stop, I can’t stop it be­cause the hurt is still there.”

Kylie’s mur­der prompt­ed wide­spread out­rage among San­gre Grande res­i­dents and the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

Mel­oney said for months af­ter her grand­daugh­ter’s mur­der, neigh­bours did their best to com­fort her.

She said Kylie’s uni­form from the San­gre Grande Sev­enth-Day Ad­ven­tist Pri­ma­ry School was kept at an­oth­er rel­a­tive’s home as the sight of it would stir too many emo­tions.

On the week of Kylie’s fu­ner­al, 25-year-old Aaron Lon­don was ar­rest­ed and charged with her mur­der, while for­mer sol­dier Ke­fentse Sim­mons, 30, was charged short­ly af­ter.

Mel­oney said the ar­rests have done lit­tle to con­sole the fam­i­ly as the pain of her grand­daugh­ter’s mur­der re­mains fresh.

“I feel an­gry, you know. We are hu­mans. I get up­set about it be­cause that’s my grand­daugh­ter gone and it’s a child too. At the end of the day, Kylie isn’t com­ing back. There’s noth­ing that can bring her back. Noth­ing can be done to com­pen­sate for the life of that child.”

Com­ment­ing on the preva­lence of mur­ders, Mel­oney said she felt crime had got­ten out of con­trol.

Re­fer­ring to the Sep­tem­ber mur­ders of sib­lings Faith Pe­terkin, ten, Ar­i­an­na Pe­terkin, 14, Shain Pe­terkin, 17 and Tiffany Pe­terkin, 19, in La Re­treat Ex­ten­sion, Ari­ma, Mel­oney said there were sim­i­lar­i­ties in both in­ci­dents that brought back mem­o­ries of her grand­daugh­ter’s mur­der.

“When I heard it, every­thing just came rush­ing back to me.

“It was the same kind of play, every­thing that hap­pened with Kylie, you just saw it there too.”

Mel­oney said the fam­i­ly has grown clos­er in the af­ter­math of Kylie’s mur­der, cre­at­ing stronger bonds.

Christ­mas, she said, was Kylie’s favourite hol­i­day.

“She would have been in that kitchen help­ing us with every­thing from pastelles to black cake.

She would have been there danc­ing, mak­ing us laugh with how brave she used to talk.”