ROSEAU, Dominica, Wednesday March 30, 2011 – The 15-year-old girl who went missing for 40 days has been found alive and a man held in connection with her disappearance.
Shanice Jemmott was found underneath a tarpaulin in the community of Hillsborough, in the western parish of St Joseph, wearing the same school skirt she was dressed in when she went missing, Police Commissioner Cyril Carette disclosed. She was taken to hospital to be examined.
Some ammunition was also seized by police from the hiding place.
Carette said a suspect identified as Webster Edmund had taken police to the girl after he was held for questioning. The police chief did not say what led lawmen to Edmund or whether he kidnapped the girl or she ran away with him.
After a massive search for the teenager failed to locate her for more than a month, government offered an EC$20,000 (US$7,407) reward for information leading to her safe return.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has indicated that the government would have to wait to hear from police to determine what would happen with the reward money.
Jemmott had gone missing on February 17. She’d left home to attend classes at the Isaiah Thomas Secondary School but never showed up.
There had been various reports that she and a man had been spotted in neighbouring Guadeloupe, but Commissioner Carette said they never left the country.
