The Claxton Bay imam who alerted the police about the strangling death of seven-year-old Mckenzie Hope Rechier in Palo Seco on Friday night believes the “creator has his hands over the situation.”

Newsday spoke to Yasin in Pranz Gardens near the area where the 25-year-old detained suspect had spoken to him about the death. The unemployed woman, a close relative of the girl, was still in custody on Sunday evening.

The imam did not give his full name nor did he want to provide details on the incident.

He said the police had interviewed him earlier and he had given them “all the information” he had.

“I did my part,” he said.

He said it was not the first time she came for help as many people visit the masjid for help with different things.

“Anyone can come here for help. We help people once it is within our means and once it is nothing illegal. As you can see, we are not rich people, but we still help. We could not help in this case. The child was already dead. So we passed on the information to the police,” Yasin said.

He added that the masjid have been helping people for over 20 years. The masjid is a complete structure on a hill overlooking a forested area in Pranz Gardens.

From what relatives were told, the suspect had a hefty meal before meeting Yasin on Friday night.

The friend, 40, from La Brea, who took her to meet him, had bought her a KFC meal, soup, and ice cream, as she requested.

“She had all of that before heading to meet the imam,” a close relative said.

Cpl Aguillera and WPC Monsegue of the Santa Flora station found the girl’s body on Saturday around 12.05 pm at home, an incomplete wooden shack, at 7 Road Extension in Palo Seco.

The body was wrapped with a curtain on a mattress. The structure does not have electricity or pipe-borne water and is in a forested area accessed by a muddy track.

The police said the suspect reported that she left the girl alone at about 4 pm on Friday. She went to a supermarket with the friend and he bought her a few items. He also bought a KFC meal for her.

Police said she asked the friend to take her to visit her imam.

He complied, and they met Yasin at around 10.20 pm.

Yasin accompanied the woman and the friend to the shack, where they saw the child’s body in a foetal position. The body had marks on the right side of the neck and the child’s face was swollen.

Mckenzie’s grandmother Brenda Persad, 47, said the suspect battled depression after her (suspect’s) two-month-old son died from bronchitis and lung infection in 2016.

[caption id="attachment_970899" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The Palo Seco home in which Mckenzie Hope Rechier, 7, was found unresponsive on Friday night. - ANGELO MARCELLE[/caption]

In 2017, the now-detained woman spent 14 days in the psychiatric ward of the San Fernando General Hospital.

Persad said the baby boy’s father was living in the Claxton Bay area.

Asked about Mckenzie’s father, Persad had some harsh words about the man believed to be from Point Fortin.

“He was absent and was never a part of the g