The lifeless body of a 20-year-old woman was yesterday morning pulled out of a trench, a short distance from her Nismes, West Bank Demerara home.
The shocking discovery was made a day after Leonaka Natasha Johnson, called ‘Tasha’, left her Lot 17 Nismes River View home, in the company of a man. It was persons passing the area around 6 am who first spotted the body and alerted her relatives.
Police have since questioned her companion on the day she was last seen, who is a policeman. s Johnson’s fiancé was also questioned as part of the investigation under way into her death.
Relatives, who said Johnson was not known to “sleep out,” were yesterday convinced that she was murdered given the wounds about her body.
Her mother, Isabelle Hinds, told this newspaper that her daughter’s body bore several bruises about the arms and her neck appeared to be broken. She said that blood was oozing from her mouth and nose. The body appeared to still be fresh, relatives said, stressing that she might have been killed just hours before the discovery.
They also suspect that the woman may have been sexually assaulted. A post-mortem examination will be conducted on her remains this week.
Hinds, between sobs, said that she last saw her daughter on Wednesday and all appeared well. She explained that her daughter was engaged to be married, but she and her fiancé had some minor issues.
She added that she heard her daughter left home in the company of a policeman on Thursday and was not seen since. The distraught woman said she was never introduced to the man but heard that Johnson “had a male friend with whom she now kept company.”
Johnson’s relatives opined that she was killed elsewhere and her body dumped near the home. They said Johnson was the sort of person who would fight back if she was being attacked, but noted that persons in the area said they had heard no suspicious sounds.
Johnson was described as a motherly figure, since she was close to the children in the neighbourhood. She would have been celebrating her birthday later this month.
Johnson is survived by her parents and several siblings.
