Three months after 14-year-old Basmattie ‘Amanda’ Munusami of Woodley Park, West Coast Berbice was raped and murdered, her mother fears that the attackers would never be brought to justice.
Padmoutie ‘Padma’ Dyall, 44, told this newspaper that she is unable to rest knowing that the suspects who were from the community were still walking freely.
They were arrested and released without charge.
A police source had told this newspaper that it was clear that “at least one or two” of the young men who were arrested was responsible for the crime.
However, no charges could have been laid after the post-mortem examination proved that the cause of death was “inconclusive.”
The source had said that they were still seeking advice in the matter as well as the help of an overseas expert. They had said too that there is also a possibility that an exhumation may be required.
Dyall told Stabroek News that investigators had also mentioned that her daughter’s body may have to be exhumed.
She is happy for whatever can be done to ensure justice is served and questioned why the investigators were taking so long to proceed.
She said she went to the station to inquire about the progress of the case and was told by police that they were awaiting the file from the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Residents had told this newspaper that Basmattie was last seen in the company of a young man who was last year acquitted of charges of rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl from Bath Settlement about four years ago.
Dyall was distressed too that some of the young men have already left the country and that after they were released their relatives were making fun of her. The woman lamented that whoever did that to her daughter must “pay for it.”
A rice farmer found the girl’s semi-nude and decomposed body around 10:30am on July 29, partially buried in his rice field.
The corpse was turned face down and only the mid-section was visible. It seemed to have been buried in a shallow grave.
The girl’s body was clad in a black bra with the skirt and underwear pulled down to her knees.
A string was also tied tightly around her neck.
Police were contacted and after their arrival the mud was washed off the body until Dyall recognized the skirt the girl was wearing and confirmed it was her daughter.
A teenaged suspect who allegedly confessed to being part of the rape but not the killing had agreed to accompany police to the spot.
Reports are that while the rice farmer was taking them to the backdam on his tractor/trailer he pretended he did not know the spot and kept driving.
But the teenager hailed out to him to “stop right hay” and also showed them “hay abe walk.” After relating to police all that transpired and who were involved he was taken into custody but was released like the others.
Dyall had also complained that she was kept at the Fort Wellington Police station for almost 24 hours for questioning following the discovery of her daughter’s body.
The police have been criticized in the past for detaining mourning relatives who have no clear link to the deaths of persons close to them.
The woman had lamented too that after the article about her daughter’s death broke in the Stabroek News, she was still being detained at the station and the police started to harass her for “giving information to the media.”
But she responded that she did not “tell the media anything because ayo gat me hay lock-up.”
Missing
The girl, a student of the secondary department of the Woodley Park Primary School, left home on the afternoon of July 29 and was never heard from afterward.
Dyall, a domestic worker/coconut oil vendor had reported the girl missing to the Fort Wellington Police Station.
She recalled that she left home early to “walk and sell” coconut oil and upon her return that evening her daughter was not at home. She did not find this unusual as the girl would usually go to her father’s home and spend the night.
The following day she started to inquire at the homes of neighbours about the whereabouts of her daughter but was only told that the teen was last seen the day before.
She also decided to check at the home of a male – the prime suspect.
His mother informed her that he had gone to church.
Dyall told the woman that her daughter was missing and that she was involved in a relationship with her son. The woman responded that her son “nah gon like meh daughter.”
Drugs
Meanwhile, residents are concerned that youths in the village are engaged in using drugs and would interfere with the young girls.
A woman told this newspaper that her teenage daughter complained to her that one of the drug users was interfering with her.
The woman said when she tried to talk to him he verbally abused her. She said they are living in fear because the man threatened her that “she could make her end up like Amanda.”
The residents said too that they also made several reports to the police about persons who are selling drugs in the village but nothing was done about it.
“We don’t want to make any more reports to the police in West Berbice; we have no confidence in them.
Look how long we making reports and the same thing happening. We gon have to report to the higher authority,” one man lamented.
