April 12, 2007 – The body of an as-yet unidentified child was found in an abandoned wooden structure at Eighth Street in Sugar Estate Wednesday night.
It is unknown if the body found was that of 12-year-old Laquina K. Hennis, missing since last Friday. But the V.I. Police Department has released the name and photo of a person of interest being sought in that case.
Volunteers of the U.S.V.I. Search and Rescue team came upon the body as they continued a four-day search for Hennis.
“It was about 7:55 p.m. Wednesday when about four or five members of the Rescue Squad, working their way through several buildings on Lot 16, Eighth Street, came upon a plastic tote bin in the two-compartment wooden house,” Carl Fleming, leader of the Rescue team, said.
Acting Police Commissioner James McCall said Wednesday night that investigators of the Major Crime Unit could see one hand and one foot of a small-framed individual sticking out from under the sheet in which the body was wrapped. The body was face down in a fetal position in the plastic bin.
Fleming said that his volunteer search team had been in the area the last couple of days and were actually responding to residents' complaints of a foul odor emanating from the buildings situated on Lot 16, according to a release from Government House.
Attorney General Vincent Frazer and Mc Call, who had updated Gov. John deJongh Jr. throughout the night on developments in the investigation, refused to speculate on the identity or gender of the young child and whether the body was that of the missing 12-year-old.
A search led by local and federal law enforcement officials and the volunteer rescue team had been under way since last weekend after Hennis was reported missing.
The search team had been through the Sugar Estate area and the Paul M. Pearson Garden public housing community looking for the girl.
Both Frazer and Mc Call indicated that a forensic examination led by Medical Examiner Dr. Francisco Landron will commence first thing Thursday morning in an attempt to identify the body.
The plastic tote containing the body was removed to the Schneider Regional morgue around 11:25 p.m. Wednesday.
"All resources of the enforcement community are being brought to bear in the ongoing investigation," McCall said, noting that the VIPD Special Operations Bureau was out seeking 30-year-old Daniel Castillo, who is wanted for questioning.
Both the Police commissioner and attorney general asked anyone with information to contact the Major Crime Unit at 714-5546 or the emergency police number 911.
McCall praised the many citizens who have called the VIPD to offer information on the search for the missing 12-year-old girl and encouraged anyone with any type of information to reach out to the investigators at once.
“FBI agents assigned on St. Thomas joined the investigation Wednesday night to assist the Forensics Unit in gathering evidence at the scene,” Mc Call said.
The FBI expertise will then be used in the formation of the case as the search for suspects continue. “This is a murder case, and we will get to the bottom of the circumstances that led to the death of this child,” he said.
Both McCall and Frazer said the case is a stark reminder to parents to know the whereabouts of their minor children at all times. “Now is not the time to leave children unattended at home or at play,” Frazer said.
Investigators remained in the area well past midnight in order to continue processing the crime scene.
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