Patricia Alves, 41, of Second Street, Alberttown, Georgetown, is expected to appear before a city magistrate to answer the charge in the dramatic case that has dominated headlines since the shallow grave victim, Parbattie Kamille Seenauth, also called 'Paro', 31, was removed from the hole in Alves' yard early last Friday morning.

Residents of the area said the suspect in the gruesome case had for years conducted rituals at her house/church that involved severely beating subjects in a `healing' process.

Seenauth, originally from Charity, Pomeroon in Essequibo, who was last seen alive by close relatives late last year, was buried at Le Repentir Cemetery in Georgetown on Tuesday.

There was a flood of emotions from close relatives gathered at her graveside to pay their last respects and catch a final glimpse of her badly-battered body.

Relatives said the post mortem examination performed on Monday revealed that she died from strangulation and sexual assault, and that there were several marks of violence about her body. There was also evidence of bludgeoning to the forehead, they said.

Among the mourners were her two sisters - Vadwattie and Deowattie, brother Seemangal and aunt Ramrattie Hardyal, who all travelled from the Essequibo Coast and the Pomeroon River for the funeral.

They all huddled together, trying desperately to comfort an elder aunt, Mrs. Parbattie Lall fondly referred to as Aunt Doris, who lives at Montrose, East Coast Demerara, and with whom Kamille had been living before moving in to stay with Alves about three months ago.

The contents of a travelling bag handed over to them by the Police, purporting to be Kamille's 'personal belongings' were her clothing, more than two dozen candles - of various colours, sizes, and fragrances - a dinner bell; a calabash; cosmetics; photographs of various Hindu deities; and a quantity of 'confusion powder' and other items.

A family friend, Pastor Deonauth of the Zeelugt 'Faith in Jesus Ministry', East Bank Essequibo, burnt them at the graveside in the presence of all assembled.

While it could not have been ascertained what other personal belongings Kamille had with her during her stay with Alves, relatives said that apart from the bag, the only other thing they received from the Police was their sister's gold wedding band, which she had on her finger when the body was exhumed from the shallow grave.

Weeping, Aunt Doris, who once suffered a stroke, related Tuesday that Parbattie had spent about a year and nine months at her home in Montrose. Comparing her then, to what she looked like at the time of her death, relatives recalled her being on the chubby side "...and very fashion conscious."

Aunt Doris recalled with horror the day Parbattie told her that she had found a job and was going to become a 'live-in' domestic, but she did not say where she was going.

"I didn't want her to go, but she promised me she would phone me, and that she would come back to see me the next Sunday. She left and I never saw her back nor even heard from her."

She also recalled her niece leaving the home on a Monday - somewhere around the last week of November or the first week of December last year.

Until last week when they heard of her death, no one knew where she was, the relatives said.

After seeing Alves on television when the case broke, relatives who went to visit Parbattie while she was in hospital, recalled seeing that same woman at her bedside.

Seemangal said that while his sister was at their aunt's at Montrose, they had heard regularly from her. But after she left the home there was a breakdown in communication.

Then one day his wife received a telephone call from her, and a contact number. Thereafter, they spoke a few times on the phone.

"But one day she called, and she was crying. We tried to find out what was wrong, but she would not say...and then she hung up," he said.

After that, she did not call them back, and because he and his wife were worried, the brother said they called her a few days later.

However, the reception was not warm, and she warned them not to call back the number.

This might have been as recent as two weeks ago, he said.

Her body was discovered and Alves arrested after neighbours tipped off police that someone was seen burying a corpse in a shallow grave in the yard.