Ex-con buries niece alive in shallow grave

Sep 02, 2017 News

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– After ripping off gold earrings, flinging toddler through window
An 18-month-old girl was flung out of a window and then buried alive by her ex-convict uncle, who then covered the shallow grave with several pieces of wood to hide his tracks early yesterday morning.
The horrific series of actions took place after 20-year-old Sherwyn Roberts, who was recently released from prison, broke into his brother’s Lot 98 North Sophia, Georgetown home and savagely ripped a pair of gold earrings from the toddler’s ears. He was arrested at his ‘B’ Field Sophia home shortly after the incident.
The suspect has since confessed to ranks at the Prashad Nagar Police Station. He even revisited the scene and explained what he did in detail. Roberts did not, however, provide any reason for his action. In fact, the only thing he told the ranks was that he was “high on weed”.
The dead infant is Ronasha Pilgrim. Her body was pulled from the three feet deep muddy grave approximately an hour after it was buried there—around 04:00 hrs. The grave was located just below the window through which the suspect had flung her.
Little Ronasha and her two older brothers—12-year-old Ryan and 10-year-old Ron Junior—were at home in their one-bedroom shack when their uncle gained entry to their home by breaking a louvre window in the bedroom.
The children’s father, Ron Pilgrim, who works as a maintenance worker in the day and security at night, was at the time guarding someone’s property when his children were attacked by his younger brother, whom he described as a “bandit.”
Yesterday, the police said their investigation revealed that around 03:00 hrs, the suspect allegedly broke a northern window, entered the house, and attempted to relieve the toddler of her earrings. The child began to scream.
Kaieteur News was informed that the suspect managed to rip off the earrings and then tossed the child through a window into the swampy yard. Before leaving, the suspect placed a pile of wood on top of the shallow grave he buried her in. Her body was submerged in water and slush.
During an interview, the children’s father explained that he did not allow his brother to visit his home because of his habits of stealing from people. The older Pilgrim said that he had no idea as to what could have pushed his brother to murder his own niece.
“I never did anything to my brother. The only thing is, I stop him from coming by me, because he steals a lot. Only Monday I saw him and I talk to him,” the dead child’s father said.
He recalled that he left home Thursday night to go to work and yesterday morning, he received a call from a female neighbour who informed him that “something bad” had happened, and he needed to return home quickly.
“When I walking through the street, I saw them (neighbours) going by me and they tell me that Sherwyn (the suspect) bury Ronasha alive, and he tried to throw my small son out of the window,” Pilgrim said, while adding that he removed the boards and dug his daughter out, but she was already dead.
He said that the mud was so soft that he used his hands to dig her out.
“She was black, black and muddy.”
The devastated father, who said that he works hard to give his children a better life, explained that when he left home on Thursday, the little girl and his 10-year-old son were sleeping while his eldest child was watching television.
“My small son tell me he wake up when the window break, and he see his uncle jumping through the window. He (Ron Junior) said that Sherwyn tried to throw him out first, but he hold onto him tight and he put he down back,” Pilgrim said.
He added that he was further informed his brother went to the toddler, who was standing next to the 12-year-old and pulled off her earrings—tearing her earlobes in the process.
This newspaper was informed that the child began screaming in the process, and as a result, the suspect then angrily picked her up and threw her through the window, and jumped out behind her.
“Her brothers said that they peeped out the window and saw him (suspect) digging a hole with his hands and then putting Ronasha, while she was crying, into it and cover it, and then rest wood on top of it and then he left,” the father related.
He said that his sons were scared and it was after some time that they ran to a female neighbour and informed the woman what had happened. It was then that the neighbour called the children’s father, but it was already too late.
Kaieteur News was informed that the older boys lost their mother at a young age and the dead girl’s mother would visit her from time to time.
Pilgrim has a smaller child with Ronasha’s mother, but that baby lives with her.
Investigations are ongoing.

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