It was just another day for Lisa Ramjattan, 26, and her common-law husband, Kristian Aziz, as they went to a daycare centre in Barrackpore to pick up their two-month-old baby, Kristiano, yesterday evening.
Thinking her baby was sleeping peacefully in a playpen, Ramjattan rushed to get her phone and took a photo of him because he looked cute and the playpen was very colourful and attractive.
However, when Ramjattan attempted to pick up her baby she recoiled in horror as she realised his tiny body was cold and stiff.
An ambulance was called in but baby Kristiano was subsequently pronounced dead at the Princes Town District Health Centre. An autopsy is expected to be performed at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, today to determine the cause of death.
Ramjattan, who spoke with the T&T Guardian last evening, said she was in such shock at the time of discovery that all she could do was run outside to call Kristian, who was sitting in their parked vehicle waiting for her and the child.
“I ran out screaming something wrong with the baby,” Ramjattan said, who is also the mother of a five-year-old boy.
Ramjattan, of St Croix Road, Princes Town, said her mother, who would usually take the baby to the daycare at GP Road daily, told her Kristiano seemed normal and healthy as usual when she dropped him off yesterday.
“We went at about 3 pm and I really saw my baby sleeping on his stomach. The woman at the daycare told me that he was sleeping long time. She told me he had liked the playpen so I said I will take a photo of it and him sleeping in it so that I could buy one for him,” Ramjattan recalled.
“I didn't know all along that maybe he was dead already. It's only when I picked him up I realised something was wrong.”
She added that she noticed milk stains around the baby’s mouth and face.
“I really need to know what happened to my baby,” the mother said.
Asked if the owner of the daycare centre had reached out to her family, Ramjattan replied, “She kept saying she was sorry but nothing else. Up to now (after 7.30 pm yesterday) the woman did not contact me or my mother to say anything or to find out how we are coping, nothing.”
Ramjattan said she lodged an official report at the Barrackpore Police Station.
She also said she had contacted CNC3’s Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne in the hope of getting some kind of justice. Alleyne highlighted Kristiano’s death on yesterday evening’s show.
Up to late yesterday investigating officers were interviewing the owner of the daycare.