Government bringing in foreign expert for third autopsy on Daniel Guerra

The government of Trinidad and Tobago is bringing in an American forensic pathologist on Monday perform a third autopsy on the body of Daniel Guerra, the eight-year-old Gasparillo boy whose body was found in the Taruba river one week ago, two days after he was last seen alive in the neighbourhood where he lived.

Police stopped Daniel's funeral on Sunday after learning that a second autopsy done privately at the request of the family showed that the child was strangled to death. That finding was in conflict with the first port mortem exam that concluded that death was by drowning.

When Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar visited the family last week she promised to do everything possible to solve the killing, even if it meant bringing in foreign experts.

The government decided to bring in Dr James Gill to conduct the examination of Daniel's remains at the San Fernando General Hospital.

Dr Gill is a deputy chief medical examiner in Office of Chief Medical Examiner, Bronx County, New York and an associate professor in pathology at Yale University School of Medicine and New York University School of Medicine. He is arriving Monday morning and will leave on an afternoon flight for New York.

Persad-Bissessar told reporters, “It is vital that the differences in both autopsy reports be considered and so we have taken the initiative to have an expert flown in so that we can clarify these differences and in these circumstances we are now getting this expert in the interest of justice.”

Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, who will meet Dr Gill on his arrival, said his office decided to call in an international expert because of "unusual and mysterious circumstances in which this child disappeared or was allegedly abducted and turned up dead in a watercourse over two miles away from his home".

Ramlogan told the Newsday newspaper the decision was taken in consultation with Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard who has no objection to a third autopsy done, given the circumstances of the case.

“I wish to stress that my consultations with the DPP were cordial and cooperative in the public’s interest and this is but an attempt to provide support and assistance to the police in this investigation,” Ramlogan said.

He pointed out that Gill was highly recommended and has written extensively on forensic pathology and his papers include homicides of children.

“The Prime Minister has promised to leave no stone unturned in investigating the death of this child and we are therefore flying in external help to ensure we get to the bottom of this child’s death,” he said.

“It is clear that the Prime Minister and the nation are extraordinarily shocked when children die in such circumstances and the Government is committed to going the extra mile in these type of cases in particular. 

We also intend to beef up and improve our forensic science centre so that this expertise can further assist the police in their investigations of all murders,” he said.