The relatives of 15-year-old Rashana Alexander, who was reported missing before a $50,000 ransom demand was made for her safe return, believe she might have ventured into the interior to be with a man described as her “friend.”
The girl’s uncle, Michael Braithwaite, told Stabroek News yesterday that relatives have heard from some of her friends that Rashana had been friendly with a “big man who does go in the bush” and he feared she might have gone in there to escape having to migrate to the United States. Rashana’s uncle is due in the country sometime next week, and he was supposed to be returning to the United States with her. Rashana, however, did not want to go.
Braithwaite said he learnt that Rashana had assured persons that she was not returning to school and by the age of eighteen she would have her own house. As a result, he believes she went into the interior to earn a living.
Rashana left her Lot 421 School Street, Craig, East Bank Demerara home on Saturday to go to church, but never returned. Her cousin later received a call on Sunday from an unknown male, who told him that “if you want see back you sister you gotta pay $50,000.” Her relatives later learned that she had contacted her boyfriend, telling him she was at a friend’s house. This boyfriend, according to Braithwaite, is still in police custody.
Braithwaite said that since Rashana’s parents died, she has been moved from one relative to the next, since she has been difficult to manage.
He said she tended to be upset if she did not have her own way in doing things. “Like the other day she was upset because she wanted to go to a village day celebration and we told her she can only go if my children [who are older] going. But they didn’t want to go, they preferred to stay at home and watch movies, so I said she not going,” he explained.
