SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland:
SIX-YEAR-OLD SHANELLE Williams, a student at the Savanna-la-Mar Infant School, died Tuesday after ingesting an unknown quantity of her mother's pink heart-shaped pills, which were left in a drawer.
When The Gleaner visited her family's small wooden house in Georges Plain, a large crowd had gathered as her body lay wrapped in a white sheet on the bed where she always slept. Shanelle's distraught mother, who was at work at the time of the incident, was too distraught to speak. The child's stepfather wailed openly and had to be escorted away from the house.
LEFT AT HOME
Shanelle was reportedly left at home with her 16-year-old aunt, a 14-year-old cousin and a one-year-old baby. The eldest of the four children was clearly in a state of shock and refused to speak without the permission of the deceased child's mother.
The 14-year-old recounted that about midday all four of them went to sleep. When the eldest child woke up at 1:30 p.m., she reportedly saw Shanelle lying on a bed in the front room, apparently asleep. The aunt went to catch some water and, on her return, the others woke up and she decided to wake Shanelle to give her something to eat. "We started to shake her but she wouldn't wake up and when we turned her over there was blood coming from her nose and froth from her mouth," the 14-year-old said.
The frightened children called a neighbour for help and the Frome police were summoned.
