Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 22/Sep 08:49

Father, teachers shaken by death of ‘model student’

WITH tears in his eyes, Marlon Seentah, 40, has vowed he will have justice over the death of his 14-year-old daughter Mariah whose body was found in a bushy track near the Friendship Recreation Ground, Ste Madeleine, on September 20. According to a relative, a villager was walking through the track when they saw a dog barking at something in the bushes. Upon looking closer, the person saw the body of the Form Three student on the ground. One of her slippers was still on the track. Police were immediately notified. Seenath, a father of four, said whoever killed his wonderful daughter should have killed him instead. According to reports, Mariah, a student at San Fernando East Secondary, had left her grandmother's house on Cipero Road, San Fernando, to go to her father's home. She did some chores at her father's house and left again. She was not seen alive again. At the home of relatives in Friendship Village on September 21, Seenath told the media, "I got a call that they found my daughter dead on the ground. I don't know what went on." He struggled to contain his emotions. "All I could see is my daughter there (being) loaded into (the) forensics van." He said the track where Mariah's body was found is one which she and her relatives traversed regularly. "Yes, she did walk that same route a lot with her other sisters. When they're going from school, they would drop off there and walk through there...coming by their grandmother...through there. "Many times. Nobody doesn't interfere with the children. They are very respectable children. They tell you 'morning', they tell you 'good evening'. They don't take anything from anybody. They don't interfere with nothing." Seenath said, "I also walk through there when I have to go and do my little odd jobs." He is a carpenter and labourer. Seenath said, "This came as a shock to me. I don't know whosoever have vengeance against me." He asked, "Why they didn't come at me? Why did they go at my little daughter? [caption id="attachment_1179592" align="alignnone" width="872"] Mariah Seenath -[/caption] "I have to get justice for this somehow." He said his daughter loved to help people and was an athlete. "She loves sports. She loves football. She loves to help her grandmother. She loved to help me around the house. All sorts of things she helps me with." Seenath has a message for the person who killed Mariah. "The person who did this...They will have to pay." Police officers met with Seenath and other relatives on September 21 at the house where the mood was grim. Members of the Hunters Search and Rescue Team also visited the house to offer their condolences to Seenath and other relatives. One relative took Newsday to the track and showed the location where Mariah's body was found. It was a place through some bushes and the ground showed signs of recent activity. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the relative said Mariah spent the night with her grandmother who lives close by. "That's something they usually do. They spend the night. Sometimes they by their father." The relative said, "The child left from by her grandmother...across the street there and they usually does walk this path here every day. This is something they're accustomed doing...walking through here." The relative said, "The neighbours know them...everybody know they walk here and they look out for them." Mariah, the relative continued, walked along the track by herself on September 20. The relative said Mariah went to her father's house, soaked her school uniform and may have taken a bath as well. "Then she left from there. She left with somebody." [caption id="attachment_1179651" align="alignnone" width="725"] BROKEN: Marlon Seenath walks along the street where his daughter was last seen, a few meters from where she was found dead along a track in Ste Madeleine. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption] The relative said, "Eyewitnesses say she left with a relative and then after that, nobody knew where she went." The relative added the person whom Mariah was reportedly last seen with was later seen in another part of Friendship Village. According to the relative, Mariah was last seen alive between 7.30 am and 10.30 am. The relative only found out about Mariah while passing through the area around 2 pm on September 20 and saw police vehicles. "Then we contacted the father." Teachers: Mariah did not deserve this Mariah was described as a "model student" of San Fernando East Secondary School and was on the school's football team and member of its drama club. In a post on Facebook on September 21, the school mourned her loss, saying the community was shattered upon learning of her death. "A bright spark, a resilient spirit, a beacon of hope. Mariah has been taken away from us and we are holding on to our faith in God to see us through," the school said. "To her relatives, friends, fellow footballers, classmates, Drama Club crew members, teachers, we express our heartfelt condolences. We have all lost a student who was well appreciated and loved. She will be long remembered. "Let's choose to come together and comfort one another during this time of mourning. Let's choose healing, empathy, respect and kindness as we walk through this difficult time." In an interview with Newsday, one of her teachers said the news has left him devasteted. "She loved football, she loved sport," he said. "Such a quiet, nice child. Anything in school to help with, Mariah would be willing to help, "Our school is broken right now." He said he could not fathom why someone would attack her. "If you see this skinny little girl. I dunno how anyone could look at her with any malice or think about harming her. My heart is hurting," he said. In a Facebook post, Annmarie Hamilton-Noel, another teacher at the school, said, "There are no words to express how we are feeling right now: we are heartbroken we are enraged, we are saddened. Mariah was a model student: respectful, hardworking, quiet, a gifted footballer, overflowing with potential." Another teacher at the school said she did not get the opportunity to teach Mariah but knew her to be very pleasant. "The entire school is in shock. She did not deserve this," she said. Newsday understands that a team from the Student Support Services Division is expected to visit San Fernando East Secondary on September 22 to help students deal with this traumatic loss. In a media release, the TT Football Association expressed condolences on the death of the young footballer. "We mourn not only the loss of her potential and dreams on and off the field, but also the cruel manner in which her life was taken. Mariah’s passing is a painful reminder of the urgent need for us as a nation to confront and reject all forms of violence,especially against women and children. "No parent should ever have to bury their child. No young girl should ever face such horror. We must raise our voices, protect our young ones, and stand firmly against those who perpetuate violence." Investigations are ongoing.   The post Father, teachers shaken by death of ‘model student’ appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.