A father is mourning the loss of his 18-month-old daughter who was reportedly murdered by her 20-year-old uncle in North Sophia, Greater Georgetown, early Friday morning.

Police in a release said the unemployed suspect from ‘A’ Field Sophia is in police custody for the alleged murder of Ronasha Pilgrim of Lot 98 North Sophia.
The incident reportedly occurred between 03:30 hrs and 04:00hrs on Friday morning at the Sophia home where the child lived.

Police said the child, along with her brothers, ages 10 and 12, was left in the house by her father, a security guard, who went to work.
The suspect allegedly broke a window, gaining entry into the house where he tried to relieve the child of her earrings.
But in trying to do so, the child started to scream and the man tossed her through a window into the swamped yard.
He then hurried away from the area, but not before placing a pile of wood on top of the child, who was submerged in 18 inches of water and slush.
When the child was discovered by her father shortly after, she was in a motionless state and was transported to the Georgetown Public Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Her body is at Lyken’s Funeral Home awaiting a post-mortem.
Father of the child, Ron Pilgrim, told Guyana Chronicle that he left home for work around 19:30 hrs on Thursday, leaving his three children secured in their Lot 98 North Sophia home.

The 35-year-old man said when he left home, one of his sons and his daughter were asleep while his other son was watching television.
Pilgrim, who is a security guard attached to Cevon’s Waste Management depot in Stevedore Housing Scheme where he works only at nights, said around 3:30hrs he received a call from a neighbour who asked him to return home urgently.
Pilgrim said he inquired from the neighbour what the problem was and was told that his daughter was reportedly buried in his yard by his brother and his sons were in the house.

SHALLOW GRAVE

On hearing the news, Pilgrim said he flagged down a taxi and rushed home where his sons told him what transpired. He went to the spot where his daughter was buried and pulled her out.

Pilgrim said his sons told him that the suspect broke into the house by removing a few louvres to gain entry into the house. On entering, he held onto one of the boys and attempted to choke him but the lad fought him off.

He then went to the child who was sleeping at the time and yanked off her gold earrings, causing her to wake up screaming.

The suspect, who is a drug addict and a convicted thief, and who was only recently released from prison for larceny, on seeing the reaction of the child, tossed her through the window he had broken to enter the house.
After the child fell into the flooded yard, the suspect came out of the house, went into the yard, dug a shallow grave with his hands, threw the child in and covered her body with piles of wood.
“My brother don’t come here to my house and I am baffled as to why he came here in the dead of the night to do such a thing to my daughter,” Pilgrim lamented.
His brother lives in a shack on a government reserve in ‘A’ Field, Sophia and Pilgrim said he never wanted him at his home because he is a person with “sticky fingers”.
Even though Pilgrim’s sons saw what their uncle did, they could do nothing as they were afraid and fled to the neighbour’s house.

Pilgrim, a single parent, said his daughter’s mother lives in Guyhoc Park, Georgtown and he would take her there on weekends.
“I don’t know what could have caused my own brother to come to my house and do such a thing, but I know he does ‘smoke’ and he don’t work,” the man said.
Neighbours told Guyana Chronicle that Pilgrim and his children moved into the unregularised squatting area some years ago.
North Sophia is without potable water supply and proper roads. Residents also suffer from garbage pollution and with poor drainage, the area is vulnerable to constant flooding.