– man still in custody
A post-mortem examination conducted on the remains of a West Coast Berbice waitress proved that she died from poisoning and the man who allegedly forced her to ingest it is still in custody at the Fort Wellington Police Station.
Police sources said yesterday that a report on the matter has to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice.
Iola Ashantie Reynolds, 28, a waitress of Number 11 Village, West Berbice died on Monday morning after she was allegedly forced to ingest a poisonous liquid. According to police sources, the man, who shared a visiting relationship with Reynolds, has denied that he “fed” her poison.
However, Reynolds’ mother Isha Ally maintained that her daughter told her that the man gave her the poison.
Police sources told this newspaper that the woman had not given them such a report in writing and they had not noticed any “marks or scratches” on Reynolds consistent with being forcibly fed poison.
Reynolds, who was employed as a waitress at a Chinese Restaurant at
Bush Lot, was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital around 6.30 am on Monday, but succumbed around 10 am. She was mother to three children, Donna Smith, 11; Keon Smith, 7 and five-year-old Candacy Britton.
Candacy’s father who separated from Reynolds “about a year and a half ago” told Stabroek News that he did not know her to be the type of woman who would take her own life. He said while they were together they had their share of problems but the most she would do was “walk out and go by she mother” but would later return.
He said the man now in custody got annoyed when he went to visit Candacy and take items for her so he had resorted to calling his daughter out on the street and giving her whatever he had. The man who is a labourer said Candacy would continue living with her grandmother and he would continue to support and visit her.
Ally, 60, who resides in the upper flat of the house with the woman’s children, had told Stabroek News that the man now in custody had been waiting at the roadside on Sunday until her daughter returned from work around 10 pm.
Once she got home, Ally said, he kept arguing with her and accusing her of “having another man.” The two went into the apartment together and the fighting continued throughout the night.
Around 4 am, Ally said, unable to rest because the man kept fighting with her daughter, she went outside and sat on her veranda. Shortly afterwards, she said, she saw the man bring her daughter, who had a towel wrapped around her, into the yard.
He left some time later and Ally said her daughter waited until she was sure the man had gone then shouted, “Ow mommy, meh stomach blazing.” She then related that the man had forced poison down her throat.
Ally said she then got a neighbour to assist in taking her daughter to the hospital where she succumbed.