Mere hours before he was buried, relatives of teenager Tyron Peters enlisted the services of a prominent pathologist to conduct a second autopsy.

Peters, 19, also called ’TBoy’, of Santa Cruz Old Road, was buried yesterday afternoon, following a funeral service at the Nazarene Worship Centre in San Juan.

Speaking with the Express following the service, Peters’s aunt, Kim Maytan, confirmed that a second autopsy was conducted on Thursday night at the St Rose Funeral Home.

’We do not believe that he (Peters) committed suicide,’ Maytan said, referring to reports by officers of the La Horquetta Police Station that Peters committed suicide.

Peters was held by police officers on August 18 and was expected to be placed on several identification parades, in connection with various crimes in the North Eastern Division.

However, officers say upon checking his cell, he was found hanging on August 22.

An investigation was then ordered by senior officers after relatives queried the report of the circumstances of his death, saying they did not believe he committed suicide.

An autopsy performed at the Forensic Science Centre in St James revealed death was caused by asphyxia due to hanging.

According to Maytan, the decision to have a second autopsy came after another of Peters’s relatives visited the funeral home to look at the body.

’His scrotum was busted and there were no marks around his neck consistent with hanging,’ Maytan said yesterday.

Adding that preliminary results from the second autopsy revealed Peters received ’beatings in the groin area’, Maytan said samples have been taken from his body and should soon be analysed and the results known.

Relatives, she said, intend to forward the results to Acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert. She said they took the decision because the explanations for her nephew’s death ’just do not add up’.

’Everything which happened is a cover-up, and something needs to be done to ensure the police do what they are supposed to, which is protect and serve,’ Maytan said.

’How could the police be saying that he hung himself with his jersey or jeans, and when we visited the station to view his body, he was fully clothed?’ Maytan asked.

Saying the family only wants justice and hopes to set an example so such occurrences do not reoccur, Maytan said they also wanted the stigma that Peters committed suicide to be cleared.

The file detailing the circumstances surrounding Peters’s death was submitted to senior officers this week.