EIGHT-YEAR-OLD Isaiah David Smartt, the Sophia lad who was found dead in a trench earlier this week, died as a result of asphyxiation due to bronchoaspiration and compounded by compression injuries to the neck.

Police said it is a clear indication that Smartt’s death was unnatural and has been ruled a homicide in which detectives will intensify their investigations. So far no arrest has been made.
Commander of ‘A’ Division Marlon Chapman, told the Guyana Chronicle that the investigations will widen and arrests are imminent. The post-mortem was performed by Government Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh.

After the body of Smartt, of Lot 148 Block ‘E’ Plum Park, Sophia, was found void of marks of violence, relatives had questioned his death since the area he was found was considered too shallow for him to drown because he was an excellent swimmer.

As such, they are asking the police to look deeper into the boy’s death which they believe is of a sacrificial nature. The F. E. Pollard Primary School student’s lifeless body was found by a relative in a shallow trench which runs along a plot of land next to his sister’s residence, on Tuesday afternoon after a search was launched.

He had gone missing from home since Monday when he left to go visit his sister, who lives a short distance away and would take the same route (short cut) there on a regular basis to go to his father’s residence. Smartt’s eldest sister, Anisha Williams, told the Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday that her sibling went by another sister to visit and he then left to go and visit his father on Monday afternoon.

She explained that another sister was supposed to accompany him but she fell asleep and he went alone and after he left their sister’s house, a short distance away, his movements were unaccounted for. Williams added that her brother’s body was found in a shallow trench in a villager’s yard, and believes that he did not drown since he was an excellent swimmer.

She stated that they do not have problems with anyone in the village and cannot understand how her sibling met his demise, they have their own suspicions. Chapman said Smartt’s body which bore no visible marks of violence was found at about 19:45hrs in approximately two feet of water in a trench. He related that after the child left his mother’s house alone and did not show up, a search was initiated by relatives who discovered his body and summoned the police.