Police investigating the murder of baby in St Lucia

St Lucia police investigating the death of an eight-month-old baby girl in Marchand, Castries, are treating the incident as murder.

The baby, who has not been named, was pronounced dead on Monday evening at the Victoria Hospital.

According to the Royal St Lucia Police Force, the baby’s mother – Melissa Lambert, also known as Ash – left her George Charles Boulevard home at 5.30pm to run an errand at a nearby shop.

She left her child asleep in a playpen.

On return at around 6.30pm, she discovered the baby motionless with a rope around its neck.

The playpen was not in its original position, police added.

A post-mortem took place yesterday, and the cause of death was revealed to be asphyxia secondary to ligature strangulation or hanging.

The post-mortem examination was conducted by Dr Heather Emmanuel.

This latest death is the 24th homicide during 2017.