The body of a 16-year-old girl was found early yesterday morning with her throat slit in a creek aback her Kuru Kururu, Linden/Soesdyke Highway home and her 28-year-old lover in whose company she was last seen was found hanging in the afternoon, relatives say.
The body of Raveena Cozier was discovered by her parents – who had gone looking for her after she failed
to return home the night before – at around 7am yesterday. The body was submerged in the creek and a bloodied knife and a pair of slippers she was wearing at the time were found on the creek bank.
Cozier’s mother told Stabroek News that around 2pm yesterday she was told by relatives of the suspect, Leo Rodrigues, that he was found hanging in his mother’s yard at Onderneeming Sandpit, Essequibo.
Shevon Cozier related that as far as she knows, the two were having no problems. She said that her daughter left in the company of Rodrigues, a miner, and they were seen on the street walking.
The woman said that the man hailed from Suddie, Essequibo and shared a two-year relationship with her daughter. He left the community during the night in a taxi, she stated. Shevon related that after finding the body, the family contacted a taxi driver the man uses whenever he comes out of the interior and the driver indicated that he was contacted and transported Rodrigues to Diamond.
Surrounded by relatives, the grieving mother told Stabroek News that she was not even aware when the couple left her home at around 7pm on Monday and it was only when she called her daughter for dinner that her husband informed that the two had left for the shop. She said after some time had elapsed, she called the man’s cellular phone since her daughter’s phone was at home and the teen answered and said she was at the shop and would be home shortly.
However, she did not return and when Shevon tried the phone again, it was off but her neighbour’s son told her that the two were on the road “modelling and hugging up tight, tight.” The woman said she waited a while and when her child failed to return, she headed out to the road but saw no sign of the two. With a heavy heart, she eventually retired to bed at around 10pm but was up again at 2am and she immediately headed to the couple’s room but found the bed empty. Another call to the phone found it still switched off.
Leo Rodrigues
Early yesterday morning the woman said, she headed out to the roadway with another daughter looking for the couple. She said that she was not sure what led her to go down to the creek area but that was the decision she made even though she never imagined that she would have found the body of her child. “But when we start going down I see like something drag in the sand and I tell me daughter leh we go more and then when we reach by the creek I see my slippers she was wearing and I say ‘Oh God is wah he do she.’”. She said her daughter then went further and saw the knife and her top floating in the trench.
Shevon said they immediately called her husband who rushed to the area and upon closer examination he exclaimed that the child’s body was in the water as he was seeing her hair.
Asked if the couple was having any problem, the woman said that as far as she knows, there was none. However, she added that the man, who only returned from the interior over the weekend, had problems of his own with the dredge and motorbike. He had said that while he was spending the holidays out of the area, his general manager had pawned his bike and he was having a hard time having it returned.
The teen’s sister related that the man was acting strangely on Monday, telling her on several occasions that he was “going away and I nah go see he no more.” He also said that he was going to go on the road and drink because he was leaving in the morning and not coming back.
“But I didn’t know about any problem between the two of them and I didn’t even know when they left the house,” the child’s mother said.
Shevon disclosed that they are originally from Essequibo and her daughter would have met Rodrigues during one of their visits to the area.
They had been together for the past two years and whenever he came out of the interior, he would spend time between their home and his mother’s in Suddie. “They does get problem, they does quarrel and suh,” the woman said and when asked if the man ever hit the child she responded in the affirmative.
“He hit she and I tell he they could quarrel but no hand playing because I would get involve. He never hit she here but when he take she to he mother in Suddie she call and say he hit she,” Shevon said.
No report was ever made to the police.
Police removed the body around midday yesterday and are investigating.
On January 3, Marcia Adams was allegedly chopped to death by her husband Paul Scotland who has since been charged with her murder.
And minutes before 2014 dawned, 20-year-old Carlisa Mathews was shot to death allegedly by her former partner Jermaine Maynard who is also now before the courts charged with her murder. The mother of one was shot and killed before midnight on New Year’s Eve in the vicinity of the Stabroek Market.
