An autopsy on the battered body of 12-year-old Mariah Seenath has confirmed she died from blunt force trauma to the head, consistent with a beating, following her discovery along a bushy track in Friendship Village, Ste Madeleine, on Sunday afternoon.

Her father, 40-year-old carpenter Marlon Seenath, wept as he revisited the scene on Monday, pointing to her slippers on the track where he believes she was ambushed. He said his daughter’s neck and abdomen bore marks of strangulation, and her nose appeared twisted and broken.

The San Fernando East Secondary student had left her grandmother’s home early that morning to walk home, a route she and her sisters used often. Hours later, her lifeless body was found by a passer-by near the recreation ground.