Sandra Alli’s death has now become “a full police investigation” and her post-mortem was rescheduled to Monday morning, a social worker said yesterday.
Investigations are now being conducted by both the police and the Ministry of Human Services, the official told Stabroek News. Probation officers from the ministry intervened on September 10 and took Alli to the Georgetown Public Hospital, after receiving reports that she was allegedly abused by her mother and siblings with whom she lived.
The woman died on the morning of September 13 and Sharon Harding, a close friend who was with her during the last days of her life, has said Alli had several marks of violence about the body. After Alli’s death, her mother, Stella Jacobs, had tried to get her body so that her last rites could be conducted. Stella Jacobs has since denied the allegations and said that neither she nor her sons ever did anything to hurt her daughter. “We never abused her [Sandra] and I don’t know why these people are making all these allegations,” the woman had told Stabroek News.
Harding said that she and a group of persons visited the Commander of Police ‘A’ Division at the Brickdam Headquarters yesterday morning. The commander, she said, has since directed the Alberttown Police Station, where reports of abuse were also made, to launch a full investigation.
“They have now rescheduled the post-mortem for Monday morning…the reason the post-mortem has been delayed is because before it was a private matter and a close relative of Sandra’s had to fill out a form before it could be done. But now that it is a police case they have now been able to order when it will be conducted,” Harding explained.
The woman also noted that the two probation officers first visited the Jacobs’ home (located opposite the West Ruimveldt Primary School) on September 8. This was after she (Harding) would have reported the alleged instances of abuse to the ministry. When the social workers arrived at the home, Harding recalled, they first spoke with Stella Jacobs and then proceeded to the room where Sandra was being kept. At that point Stella was reluctant to leave the probation officers with her daughter. “The probation officer had to tell her to leave the room that she wanted to speak with Sandra and her presence was not needed,” Harding recalled. “Even then Stella stood at the door and tried to listen in on the conversation.”
During that first visit, Harding said, marks of violence were not evident on Alli’s body. However, when they returned two days later the woman had bruises to one arm and a wound to the neck. It was during the second visit that two police officers accompanied the social workers and aided them in removing Alli from the home.
In a statement to the police, a probation officer wrote that they had received repeated reports about Alli being abused in her home. In company of another colleague, the probation officer had visited Alli’s home on September 10. “I did not observe a dark red blotch on her right arm,” the officer wrote, “but noticed that her left arm appeared to be broken, as well as her neck appeared be to broken.”
During a subsequent interview, the officer further wrote, Alli recounted to them instances of abuse she had suffered at the hands of mother and brothers Carl and Arjune.
