Accused in Danielle Rowe murder to remain behind bars until Feb 1
Published:Friday | December 1, 2023 | 12:13 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
The woman charged with the gruesome killing of eight-year-old Danielle Rowe was yesterday remanded in custody until February 1 next year.
Kayodi Satchell, a 30-year-old dental assistant, is facing a charge of murder for Rowe’s gruesome slaying, which triggered public outrage.
The matter was set for mention yesterday in the Home Circuit Court but was rescheduled due to the absence of Satchell’s attorney-at-law, Donnovan Collins.
Consequently, Satchell was remanded.
The second-grade student at Braeton Primary and Infant School in Portmore, St Catherine, was abducted on June 8 while she waited with her younger brother to be picked up by their mother from school.
According to the account of an eyewitness – a motorist – about 4:30 p.m. that day, he saw a “young female” walking from a derelict building on premises located along Roosevelt Avenue, near the National Stadium in St Andrew.
The child was confirmed to be Rowe.
She walked “on to the roadway and into the path of a motor vehicle”, the witness recounted.
The motorist said he also saw a woman exiting the premises “behind the little girl” and walking “speedily along Roosevelt Avenue in a southerly direction”.
The woman was of brown complexion, medium build, about five feet six inches tall, and was wearing a floral top and lime-green knickers pants, said the witness, who told detectives he would be able to identify her if he saw her again.
The motorist told detectives that he signalled the driver of another vehicle to stop as the child wandered on to the roadway.
The second driver, another eyewitness, disclosed in his account that he heard a car horn tooting “non-stop” and checked his rear-view mirror to see what was happening.
He said he felt when something “faintly touched” the left side of his vehicle, causing him to stop. That’s when he saw a female student – still dressed in uniform – lying on the ground.
The witness said he went to her assistance and saw “blood coming from her neck”. He recounted placing the child in his vehicle, along with her knapsack, and taking her to the nearby Bustamante Hospital for Children “while maintaining pressure to her neck”.
Rowe died at Bustamante Hospital two days later. The police have not yet determined a motive for the killing.
A post-mortem examination conducted on June 19 revealed that her death was caused by an incised wound to the neck.
Meanwhile, Satchell was denied bail in October.
According to sources, Satchell was refused bail over concerns that she could be harmed by members of the public incensed about the allegations against her.
Prosecutors also raised concerns that she “has no fixed address”, sources told The Gleaner.
Collins had declined to comment on the bail hearing but said that his client is “anxiously waiting” for her trial to commence “so the matter can be brought to an end and Miss Satchell can get on with her life”.