ST JOHN’S, Antigua – In the wake of the suspected killing of Anisha Millette – whose body was found at Devil’s Bridge just over a week ago – relatives are reeling in shock and anger as they accuse the authorities of mishandling reports of the child’s deviant behaviour.

Two days ago Natasha Goodwin identified the body of her 13-year-old-daughter who left home in the latter part of June.

In an interview with OBSERVER Media early yesterday, the mother said she had seen and heard from people who saw her daughter up to three days before the body turned up.

And just days before Millette’s demise, the mother reportedly called police to pick up the child for running away and breaching her probation-imposed curfew.

Goodwin said she did not see, but heard, the child talking loudly in a neighbour’s house.

“I called them on July 4 and they came the next day when she had already left.”

Briefly touching on when her daughter began being disobedient, the woman said the child’s behaviour changed following two traumatic life experiences between ages eight and 11.

During the time of the incidents, the child was in the care of relatives in the afternoon hours until her mother returned home from work.

She was removed from the environment and assigned a social worker/counsellor in 2009 to help her cope with the resulting stress.

“Anisha was going to counselling for years and one week before she died I called for help and they told me ‘Miss we can’t help you.’

“I called the police three days before Anisha was found dead and told them where she was and to get her and they told me they didn’t have transportation to leave Dockyard station,” the distraught woman said.

According to the dead teen’s mom, the police was informed the child had run away from home since around mid-June and the Welfare Department was also told. She said she reported most developments to the cops during the time her daughter was away.

“They wanted to put her picture in the paper and I wasn’t ready for that. I always got information on where she was and I called police to get her.

“They told me not to hit her because I had so much anger and passion over what was happening. Every time I called they just treated it lightly and said, ‘she go come back cause she always come back home,’” she said.

The mother, who has two surviving daughters, said when news broke of the body discovery at Devils Bridge, she did not even consider it could have been her daughter.

It was not until five days later when the police released an artist’s impression of the face of the deceased that relatives realised it was their loved one.

(More in today’s Daily OBSERVER)

Tags: 13-year-old-daughter | Anisha Millette | devils bridge | Grieving Mother’s Fury | Natasha Goodwin