After reporting his 13-year-old daughter missing and then vanishing when her body was discovered, Lawrence Sergeant has now been formally charged with murder. The Clarendon father was charged on Wednesday after forensic tests confirmed that the charred remains found behind his home belonged to his daughter, Shantina Sergeant.
The shocking discovery was made on October 6 in Baillieston when the teen’s partially burnt body was found beside a burnt-out refrigerator at the back of her father’s property. The teen is a student of Christiana High School who, according to a post-mortem report, died from blunt force trauma.
Sergeant, who had initially filed a missing person report for his daughter, disappeared shortly after her remains were found. His sudden absence drew further suspicion. Investigators intensified their search while labelling him a person of interest. He was later captured in Old Harbour, St Catherine, and taken into custody for questioning.
This week’s murder charge comes just days after Sergeant was already facing separate allegations of grievous sexual assault involving a six-year-old girl. Those charges were laid in late October, following claims that he molested the child multiple times several years ago. Police confirmed that the sexual assault case is unrelated to his daughter’s death but remains under active investigation.
The murder case, however, took a decisive turn once DNA results returned, linking the remains found on the property directly to Shantina. Investigators had collected DNA samples from Sergeant and another relative to confirm the victim’s identity. With the results now in hand, the father’s role in the gruesome killing is being firmly pursued through the courts.