KEW, Hanover — A post-mortem is to be conducted Friday to determine what killed nine-year-old Nikita Noel who was found dead in her community of Kew last Wednesday. There is speculation that the young girl was raped and strangled. Her body was discarded in bushes a short distance from her house.

A man who is in a relationship with the child’s mother, Nordia Edwards, was taken into protective custody after her body was discovered and investigations began.

“Our person of interest is still in custody and investigations are ongoing. The post-mortem is set for Friday (today). So, I do not have further information for the persons who are here. Until then, we will update you,” said Superintendent Sharon Beeput, the officer in charge of the Hanover Police division.

She was addressing the Hanover Municipal Corporation’s monthly general meeting on Thursday.

A week before, Clifford Chambers, the assistant commissioner of police in charge of Area One told the Jamaica Observer that the person in custody is of prime interest to the investigation.

“We know that the mother’s intimate partner, they had an issue between them and that is one of the lines of inquiry which is being followed,” ACP Chambers said then.

Nikita, who family members fondly called Joanna, was a student at Esher Primary. She’d reportedly travelled from school with her usual taxi driver. She and other passengers exited the cab at the usual spot, the foot of a dirt road leading up a hill to where her family lives. The child’s mother raised an alarm when she did not return home and could not be found. Community members and the police launched a search and her body was found a few feet from the entrance to her house.