The adoptive father of the 12-year-old child taken from self-styled spiritualist Patricia Alves' home in Alberttown on Sunday following the discovery of a corpse in a shallow grave is now seeking custody of the child.

The child is at Beterverwagting on the East Coast Demerara, but her foster father is concerned that she might still be in the care of members of Alves' church.

A police source yesterday told Stabroek News that they were still to receive the post-mortem report on the cause of death of Camille Seenauth, whose body was found in the shallow grave in Alves' yard. The source also said that the police had taken a statement from the 12-year-old but there was nothing incriminating in it. The source also said that the police had finished with the crime scene and as such there was no reason to seal it off.

Meanwhile, a distant relative of Alves has spoken to Stabroek News of her harrowing experience at the hands of Alves while living with her seven years ago.

The child's adoptive father Orin Henry yesterday told Stabroek News that he was willing to have the child back in his care. Prior to December last year when she was taken from his home, he said, she had been in his care. She grew up in the bosom of his family.

Henry said that he had been asked by the authorities to show proof that the child had been in his care. He showed Stabroek News a number of the child's documents including her birth certificate which showed that she was born on November 7, 1989. Family members in Henry's household told Stabroek News that even though the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security and the School's Welfare Division of the Education Ministry knew where the child was staying, they were afraid that she was still being taken care off by members of Alves' church. They said that they were in telephone contact with her, but she would not tell them who she was staying with.

A report from the school which the child last attended, showed that she last went to school on January 15, over a month ago.

Asked how he became the child's foster father, Henry said that he became involved with the mother when she was pregnant with the child. He also has a daughter with the child's mother. That child is living with him. The mother left him and the children when they were "just babies... I washed their diapers," he declared. The 12-year-old was then about three years old. He said that the children's mother had left the home. Last December, "out of the blue," he said, the mother appeared and took the child away and he did not see her again until the day of the discovery of the body when he saw her on television.

Meanwhile, Francine James said that Alves was a distant relative and they knew each other "from small" and did ballroom dancing together at Wilde's Club. Alves, she said, was not as young as she was making herself out to be, but was in her late forties or early fifties. She said that she was not afraid to go public because she felt that people ought to know what was happening.

James said that seven years ago, she was forced to move from where she was living and Alves, knowing her plight, offered her a place to stay in her bottom flat on Second Street. She said Alves had told her that "the man living next door was to move out."

She said that it was while she was living there that Alves opened the church in the back house after the people moved out.

When she went there to live, James said, she used to cook food and sell at the Amerindian Hostel in Princes Street. She said that people suddenly stopped buying her food, which meant that she could not get money. She was convinced that Alves "put something in the food" to get people to stop buying it. In return for food, she began to help Alves with her housework.

However, when she began to do the washing and the cleaning she found that she could never do anything to please Alves. Some days, she said, Alves would bring out 11 tubs of sheets, robes and clothing to wash. Scrubbing and washing would take all day long and Alves would then find fault with the washing.

She said Alves would then encourage her to admit to wrongdoing, which she could not. She said Alves would make people who went to her for treatment tell lies just so they could admit to wrongdoing and when they did she would beat them. She would also give them boiled herbs to drink and things to rub on their skin. James is convinced that some of the treatments caused damage to the skin of some of her patients.

James said that while she was there, there was another woman (name provided) living there with her husband. She said that the woman lived there for seven months and she was convinced that Alves caused a break up in the marriage. James said that Alves would beat them both. "I don't stand for beating," she said. Nevertheless, she said, she felt trapped and still could not understand how she stayed there for three long months deteriorating in mental and physical strength, unable to leave.

She recalled even "big shots visited Alves." Once, she said, a "big shot woman," visited Alves and promised to send back some clothes for her which she did, but Alves kept them for herself. When people visited, she said she did not know whether to laugh or cry or even say hello.

James said that once her grown daughters went to see her, very worried because Alves had told them that she was going mad and that she had threatened to commit suicide. Before this, however, she said Alves had hit her with a cup on her head and she sustained an injury.

James said that one day "a big woman" who went to Alves for treatment was given a good beating. The woman (name given) threatened to report her to the police, but Alves held on to her, cut off some of her hair and threatened to use the hair to harm her. The woman was taken to the Georgetown Hospital where her hand was placed in Plaster of Paris. "Some excuse or the other was given as to how she got the injury," she said.

Stating that Alves dabbled in obeah, James said that whenever she had a court case, which was often, she would take the names of the lawyers, magistrates and whoever else was involved and place them in a "calabash goobie (Goblet) and burn candles around the goobie and do what she had to do."

While all of this was going on, James, who claimed she was a `Faithist,' said she prayed to God to find the strength to leave the place. Things came to a head one day, she said, after she had followed one of her daughters' home. Alves, she said told her that she had no right going behind her. "She pulled out a hammer and hit me," she said, showing a visible mark on her right hip. Alves had always kept her gate padlocked and at the time it was locked as usual. However, James said, prior to being hit with the hammer she had completed a seven-day fast and on the day she was hit she made a dash for a high fence and scaled it with one jump. She said that she ran towards Lamaha Street but Alves "gentleman" went behind on his motorcycle. He accused her of taking Alves' money. She said that she emptied her pockets and he left her alone. She made a report to the police station that her belongings, including clothes and a tape recorder were at Alves' place but to no avail.

Yesterday the house on Second Street remained closed, but the lights were on all day long.