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FOR most families, Christmas is a season of joy, of laughter spilling through homes, of children eagerly unwrapping gifts and playing in the yard. But for the family of 13-year-old Mariah Seenath, this year’s holiday season is empty, silent, and heavy with grief.

Three months have passed since Mariah, a petite and bright secondary school student, has died. On September 20, her body was discovered on a track leading to the Friendship Recreation Ground, Ste Madeleine, where she lived with her siblings and father, Marlon Seenath. The post-mortem confirmed blunt force injury to the head as the cause of death, and her father later described the state of his daughter’s body: deep bruises across her forehead, skin peeled, and a broken nose.

Mariah’s death has left a gaping void in the lives of her family. A relative, speaking to the Express, said that where merriment once filled their home during Christmas, there is now only sorrow. The family has found no reason to decorate the house, no energy to pretend that life is normal. “There is no Christmas for us this year. Nothing feels normal,” the relative said.