Po­lice found the body of Jene­ka Guer­ra buried in a shal­low grave in Mara­cas/St Joseph this morn­ing. Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands the dis­cov­ery was made off San­ta Bar­bara Road on pri­vate land near a riv­er around 8.20 am by po­lice of­fi­cers and a group of hunters.

Sources said that the search team, which found Guer­ra’s hand­bag in a forest­ed area off Acono Road on Wednes­day, were led to the area where Guer­ra’s body was found, by a Venezue­lan na­tion­al, who was ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with the crime fol­low­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions by the Cy­ber Crime Unit.

Po­lice be­lieve that the sus­pect did not kill Guer­ra but was hired to dig the shal­low grave to dis­pose of her body. Po­lice were able to iden­ti­fy Guer­ra by her cloth­ing and a tat­too on her hand.

Guer­ra’s body was found in an ad­vanced stage of de­com­po­si­tion but in­ves­ti­ga­tors said they will wait for an au­top­sy to de­ter­mine her cause of death. Crime Scene In­ves­ti­ga­tors were still pro­cess­ing the scene and look­ing for clues up to a short while ago. In­ves­ti­ga­tors said that fur­ther ar­rests are im­mi­nent. Guer­ra of Sam Bou­caud, San­ta Cruz had been miss­ing since last Thurs­day. 

Re­porter: Derek Achong