As the investigation into the death of Alicia Ali continues, police have questioned relatives and a male friend from the community.
A police statement said they are continuing the investigation in relation to the murder of the teenager. However, when Stabroek News contacted Superintendent of Police Hugh Jessemy he maintained that suicide had not been ruled out.
Jessemy also disclosed that although the police have questioned persons, no one has since been arrested.
Relatives yesterday paid final tributes to Ali as they laid her body to rest.
Circumstances surrounding the discovery of the girl’s nude body last Wednesday, on the seawall near Turkeyen remain questionable, since the garments she was wearing at the time she went missing were not found, while her body bore visible marks of violence.
Meanwhile, Alicia’s elder sister, Ateesha said that her mother did not inform relatives about her sister having gone missing. She said she learned about her sister being missing by way of a phone call from someone close to her village in La Jalousie on Wednesday. Shortly after that call she received another call informing her about her sister’s death. It was then she decided to call her mother who confirmed the news, Ateesha said.
Attempts to obtain a comment from Ali’s mother were futile as relatives said that she did not want to speak with the media.
An autopsy performed on Ali’s body on Friday revealed that she died as a result of asphyxia due to drowning, compounded by compression injury to the neck and blunt trauma to the head.
The teenager went missing on Tuesday last after she was sent on errand to a nearby shop about 7 pm but did not return home. Her mother then raised an alarm and was joined by friends who went in search of her.
Ali’s body was discovered by a passerby on the seawall on Wednesday.
She was a third form student of Campbellville Secondary School and would have celebrated her 15 birthday in August.
