A post-mortem examination performed on Thursday on the body of Teyana Raghbeer, 14, at the New Amsterdam Hospital by pathologist, Dr Vivekanand Brijmohan, revealed that the teen died of suffocation and drowning; there were no stab wounds on the body as was previously reported.
Meanwhile, in a twist of events, her father, Jaiprakash Raghbeer called ‘Jaio’ was on Tuesday arrested by police in ‘B’ Division in connection with his daughter’s death. He was held for 72 hours and then released late yesterday evening. Police have since reportedly held three other persons in connection with her death.
Initially, the police had taken four fishermen (three brothers and a friend) into custody to aid with solving the case but they were subsequently released. The dead girl’s father had criticized the actions of the police who he felt were not following the right leads and he accused them of “looking in the wrong area”.
Raghbeer had disappeared from her Lot 32 Reliance Abandon residence on the evening of December 26. Her body was found around 13:15 hrs on December 27, floating in a trench aback Adelphi Canje, by men who were supposedly fishing at the time. Subsequently, the police arrested the four men.
However, according to Jaiprakash Raghbeer, who in a statement told the police that a group of six men had accosted him on Christmas Day and threatened the life of his now dead daughter, the investigators had not followed that lead. The man formally gave a statement to the police on Monday, bearing witness to the incident he said he had failed to report earlier due to him not taking the matter seriously.
In a report published in Stabroek News the next day, Raghbeer publicly criticized the police as being either “incompetent or deliberately trying to sabotage the case.” He was arrested by investigators that same day, allegedly on suspicion of being involved in his daughter’s death.
In the news article, Raghbeer was quoted as saying that to the best of his knowledge “they [the police] have not even questioned the men who attacked me or arrested them to get to the truth. I tell them these people threatened my daughter, and they do nothing. They arrest the men who found the body.”
His family believes this may have resulted in him being apprehended and detained. While making preparations for his granddaughter/adopted daughter’s funeral, Harripersaud Raghbeer said he was bewildered as to why the police would want to arrest her father.
“Why are they doing this?” he questioned, noting that the “family is having a hard enough time coping with Teyana’s death, now they arrest Jaio.”
The elder Raghbeer also questioned why his son had been held beyond the 72 hours. “72 hours pass and they still had him in the lock ups. But thank God he is out in time for the cremation because we can’t keep her body much longer,” he said.
Based on information, the police have reportedly detained three other persons, including a young man with whom the now dead Raghbeer had a romantic relationship.
According to the dead teen’s paternal grandmother, Bhagwattie Raghbeer (Shirley), some three months prior to her death, she had left her parents’ home and “get away with a boy.” The male in question, became acquainted with Raghbeer after spending some time at the residence of a neighbour. “This is not the first time she get away, she been get away with a boy and she sleep out the night and we had to go bring she home back,” the grandmother said. She further revealed that after talking with her grandson, it was brought to the family’s attention that Raghbeer was “using her father’s cell phone to text him and communicate with him even after we told her to break off contact.”
Shirley said that though her granddaughter was prone to disobey and rebel against the authority figures in her life and needed stern handling, it was difficult to keep an eye on her 24/7 because they “does be busy with chores and so in the house and work”.
Raghbeer reportedly also had a difficult relationship with her biological mother who remarried after her parents divorced and left her in the care of her father.
On the day Raghbeer disappeared, the family had celebrated Boxing Day by attending a Gymkhana held in East Canje. When they returned home in the evening, they continued celebrating the festive season outdoors before retiring inside. Sometime around 22:45 hrs Raghbeer took dinner upstairs for her parents, indicated she was going to get drinks for them and then disappeared.
The teen had apparently opened the front door of the house, walked down the stairs, jumped over the fence and vanished. When her absence was noticed shortly after 23:00 hrs, a search was immediately launched. Her father and stepmother rode around East Canje on a motorcycle looking for her. It was the next day that police pulled her body out of the trench and her father was able to positively identify her from her clothing and a scar on her forehead.
The Canje Secondary School student will be cremated today at the Reliance Crematorium in East Canje.
