Woman found dead in a well in Sandhill …

For weeks the nation held its collective breath as the number of murders appeared to have subsided. The peace was shattered last week with the murder of Emigdio Gomez off the Coastal Road and this morning the quiet community of Sand Hill was the venue for murder number forty-three of 2008. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.

Pearla Augustine, Villager, Sand Hill
“I live da Sand Hill fi thirty years and inna my thirty years ah living inna Sandhill nothing like dis neva happen inna Sandhill yet.”

Marion Ali, Reporting
The nation’s latest murder victim was forty-five year old Dorla Pitterson, a resident of Sand Hill Village. Pitterson’s body was found sometime after eleven today, stuffed inside this abandoned well behind Sylvia’s Cool Spot about a mile from where she lived in the Village. The body was naked and covered with an old umbrella and cardboard pieces.

Marion Ali
“The gruesome murder has left residents of this quiet village of Sandhill shocked as some of them say they last saw the victim last night around nine-thirty. What happened to her after that … no one knows.”

Pearla Augustine
“I noh know no idea who would ah possessed fi do it because Dorla no faas wid people. Yoh could ask anybody, ask di entire Sandhill; Dorla noh faas wid people.”

Marion Ali
“What you think happened to her last night, people say they heard her scream?”

Pearla Augustine
“I noh know weh happen. Yoh si yah? Dehn find ah inna di well naked. Di only suspicion I could seh dehn beat ah, kill ah and rape ah. I see Dorla last night about nine-thirty.”

Marion Ali
“You talk to ah?”

Pearla Augustine
“Yes, I tell ah goodnight. I seh weh yoh di do out yah Dorl? Ih seh I deh right yah di heng out gial and I walk een and I gone inn my road cause two ah we live back ah New site.”

Esmeralda Alvarado, Villager, Sand Hill
“It’s something like part of my family because she used to in and out of my home.”

Marion Ali
“I understand that she used to always spend a lot of time out on the street socialising with people.

Esmeralda Alvarado
“Yes and she is a friendly person and a very smart person.”

Marion Ali
“What you think happened to her last night?”

Esmeralda Alvarado
“Well, I don’t really know. I just get the message this morning and I decided to go and see because it’s someone that I know very well.”

Yvonne Felix, Villager, Sand Hill
“Really, it is a shock because she noh fool wid nobody and she da wah person weh dedicated. Ih very educated too right. Maybe ih got wah mental problem but she is very educated and ih noh faas wid people.”

Marion Ali
“When was the last time you saw her?”

Yvonne Felix
“Yesterday. Really, she walk this road like twenty-four-seven and she no interfere wid people so really, it is a shock. She da wah person weh we sit down together, talk together and I love listen to her because she read the bible mostly and that dah weh I love about her; she’s educated. So when dehn do something like dat to her dat was really a shock; terrible shock.”

Until the post mortem is completed, cops can only speculate that the motive was rape, but by mid afternoon they already had their prime suspect in custody.

Insp. Sinquest Martinez, Lead Investigator
“There were physical signs of violence upon this female.”

Marion Ali
“When you say physical signs you mean wounds or signs of rape or both?

Insp. Sinquest Martinez
“Physical injuries to her face.”

Marion Ali
“What does it appear happened here? Somebody dragged her there or she was already there? What happened?”

Insp. Sinquest Martinez
“I guess she was being put there after apparently being beaten within that same area.”

Marion Ali
“Have you had any leads as to who might have done this? Everybody heard screams. That’s what I’ve been picking up.”

Insp. Sinquest Martinez
“Yes, we have interviewed several persons. Right now I have someone that I am interviewing. And trust me, definitely, we’ll make an arrest within forty-eight hours.”

Marion Ali
“Is this person your suspect?”

Insp. Sinquest Martinez
“Yes, that person is the suspect.”

The angry villagers hope that justice will be swift.

Pearla Augustine
“I noh know who do it to Dorla. But whosoever do it to Dorla, justice needs to be don because ih noh fair.”

Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.