7-y-o Tianna Russell

 

7-y-o Tianna Russell died from blunt force trauma, autopsy shows

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

LINSTEAD, St Catherine – An autopsy has revealed that seven-year-old Tianna Russell died from blunt-force trauma, family members inform Observer Online.  

Observer Online understands that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is now mulling additional charges based on the findings of the post mortem that was done on Tuesday at Tranquillity Funeral Home in Kingston.

Police report that about 1:30 am on June 28, Tianna’s father Rohan Russell took her to Linstead Public Hospital, claiming that he heard her struggling to breathe. The child was pronounced dead shortly after.

According to the JCF, its officers, who were summoned to the medical facility, saw “several marks” on Tianna’s body. The marks were suggestive of abuse, the police said.

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Ahead of the post mortem, detectives charged Tianna's 39-year-old father and her 27-year-old stepmother Lorraine Fletcher with child abuse. They appeared in court on July 7 and were offered bail in the sum of $300,000 each. 

Tianna's biological mother, Claudia Francis died four years ago after a battle with illness. Since then, the child had been living with her father and stepmother at New Works in the Linstead area of St Catherine.

One of the child's maternal aunts, Verona Francis, told Observer Online that both sides of Tianna's family showed up in Kingston on Tuesday to observe the post-mortem.

"It's really heart-rending," she said.

She added that she has had to seek counselling for Tianna's teenage brother who lives with her.

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