BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FOR the second time in three days, doctors cannot determine the cause of death of little Kadeem Pereira whose lifeless body was found on Monday (Oct. 7) on a plot of land with overgrown grass and small trees near to his Godwin’s Estate home.
A police press release yesterday (Oct. 11) stated that a final autopsy conducted on Pereira’s body by Forensic Pathologist Dr. Stephen Jones revealed that the cause of death is undetermined.
SKNVibes learned that the autopsy was performed on Thursday (Oct. 10) and the 10-year-old will be buried today at the Middle Island Cemetery.
The first autopsy was performed on Tuesday (Oct. 8) by Resident Pathologist Dr. Dora Marianela Morales of the JNF General Hospital and she had arrived at the same conclusion.
This result has however left residents to ponder if Pereira was murdered.
Speaking with SKNVibes, Police Press and Public Relations Officer, Inspector Lyndon David said no marks of violence were seen on Pereira’s body, and based on the result of the post mortem the police are not treating his death as a homicide but investigations are ongoing.
For legal purposes, an undetermined cause of death means that the medical examiner cannot say for sure what caused the death of the person.
According to Michael Panella, MD in a feature article written for the Tennessee Bar Association, “In order to list a cause of death as homicide, the medical examiner must conclude from the autopsy and other reports that the death resulted from a violent act where one human being kills another. In the event the autopsy does not reveal sufficient evidence that the death resulted from homicide, even if there is evidence of possible homicide, this may result in an undetermined ruling.”
Pereira, who would have celebrated his 10th birth anniversary Monday (Oct. 7), went missing on Saturday (Oct. 5) and a massive search for him was launched on the following night by police officers in ‘B’ Division.
The officers were joined by the K-9 Unit of the Island Constables Division of Ross University of Veterinary Medicine along with Prego, the police dog, but it was not until yesterday morning that the child’s decomposing body was found just a few hundred feet from his home.
He was pronounced dead by the District Medical Officer who was summoned to the scene, while officers of the Crime Scene Unit and the Violent Crime Unit conducted investigations.
According to his grandfather, who goes by the alias ‘Baka’, Pereira was sent to a shop in the community sometime after 6:00 p.m. to purchase Kool Aid and sugar but did not return home.
This publication spoke to Lionel ‘Ken’ Rogers, proprietor of the shop in which the lad went to purchase the items, who was said to be the last person to have seen Pereira before his disappearance.
“It was after six Saturday. He came by the shop and bought sugar and some Kool Aid,” Rogers said, adding that he did not witness anything strange on that day but recalled that the boy’s mother had visited his shop on the following day enquiring about his whereabouts.
“I didn’t check to see if he went up or down or did I see anything strange. The next morning his mother came and ask me if I saw her son, and I told her after he bought the Kool Aid and sugar he left the shop.”
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