By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunedmedia.net

THE tight-knit Windstead Avenue community has been left “traumatised and shaken” after the apparent drowning of a six–year-old girl in a cesspit behind a church near her East Street South home.

Family members of Tylia “Tye” Martin said yesterday they are still “struggling to come to grips” with the tragic incident.

One family member added that the death of such a “loving, helpful, affectionate” child would take the family quite sometime to get over.

The girl’s aunt, Merlene Chery, said the family first became alarmed shortly after 6pm on Friday, after a number of calls for young Tylia by her father went unanswered.

The girl had been playing with several other children near the Miracle Working Church of God located at the western end of Windstead Avenue, her aunt said. Tylia’s grandfather, Apostle Qubell Martin, runs the church.

Relatives and residents immediately mounted a search in the area.

“At first no one thought to search the back of the church because usually the kids played in front or along the sides of the building, never at the back,” said Ms Chery.

“Seeing as the area is so small, the kids usually play and hang out around the church. On Friday there are a lot of kids around here playing and having good clean fun.”

The first grade, Carlton E Francis Primary School student is the youngest of three children. She lived with both parents at their East Street South home, around the corner from the church where she apparently drowned.

“Tylia isn’t a child that strays far away from the house,” her grandmother Vernell Martin said.

“Friday is considered family day for her and all the other grandchildren that come around. They all come here to spend time with ‘Ma’ and ‘Pa’ as they call us on Friday.

“After she didn’t respond we knew something was not right.”

The police were called and the search intensified.

Shortly after 11pm, police, with the assistance of their K-9 unit, discovered the lifeless body of the child in a cesspit at the rear of the church – less than 50 yards from her grandparents’ home and less than 200 yards away from her parents’ home.

Rosella Darling Armbrister, school principal, called Friday’s ordeal “devastating”. She added the entire school is saddened by this loss.

“To lose a student in such a way is tough, added to that losing one of our little ones is something words can’t explain.”

Mrs Darling Armbrister said Tylia’s death has been personally hard for her because of her relationship with the family.

She once taught Tylia’s mother, Shantel Gardiner.

“Myself, her teacher Ms Carey and the entire school mourns the death of Tylia. We stand with her family and her community in these hard times,” she added.

Assistant Commissioner Stephen Dean said police are awaiting the results of an autopsy, scheduled for this week, to determine the exact cause of death.