Nine months after Sophia teenager Alicia McPherson was stabbed about 42 times about her body allegedly by Shivanand Roopnarine, her boyfriend of two years, her family believes justice is being denied, as no arrest was ever made in the matter.
On April 20, 2015, the 18-year-old was found in a pool of blood behind a toilet at a dance held in ‘B’ Field Sophia, shortly after Roopnarine was seen assaulting her. There were visible stab wounds to her temple and neck.
The police had issued a wanted bulletin for Roopnarine called ‘Shiv’ or ‘Tuck’ whose last known address was given as Lot 478 School Street, Grove Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara (EBD) during May of last year, but he was never apprehended.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum recently told Stabroek News that the wanted bulletin was circulated at various police locations nationwide, particularly in Mahdia, where the suspect was suspected to be hiding out. Blanhum said searches were also conducted at the suspect’s mother’s residence, after the police were furnished with information that Roopnarine had frequented the home in Grove, EBD but he wasn’t located.
The crime chief said that his mother was also thoroughly questioned by investigators but she denied harbouring the suspect.
In a recent interview with this newspaper, McPherson’s father Ankoma Powers said her death is not something that can be “swept under the carpet”. He accused the police of “slackness.” He said the police were provided with credible information on numerous occasions in relation to the suspect’s whereabouts, but they failed to act swiftly.
He recalled the night he received the news of the incident while he was on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway where he resides. It was a night that “changed everything” for Powers.
“When I hear what happen, I immediately left for Georgetown… I literally speed to the hospital where I saw my daughter and the condition I see her in…, I begged God to take her life even if she was to survive,” Powers said, holding back tears. “If you see how this boy stab up my daughter. Is like he ain’t miss a part, he had a bore every part of she body.”
And because of that, he said based on the little that he witnessed, he has since been determined to seek all avenues to justice.
During last year, he explained, after the police did not contact him even once about any progress in the matter he had decided to take some responsibilities where he ventured to Suriname after receiving information that Roopnarine had fled the jurisdiction.
There, he said, he spent almost all his income on what turned out to be a wild goose chase.
Lamenting that the more time that passed, the harder it would get, he stated, “Not because she came from a poor family it must go down like that.” He said he was quite sure if it was the daughter of any high ranking official or authority of the country the perpetrator/s would have already been arrested and charged.
The last information Powers said he received on Roopnarine was that he had relatives living in Soesdyke, EBD where he was reportedly staying for some time after the crime after which he was seen boarding a bus to Mahdia. “The guy did have long hair and I hear he even cut his hair in a bid to change his appearance,” Powers said while adding that this was related to the police but as far as he was aware no efforts were made to conduct searches.
The loss of his daughter not only sent shock waves through the community of Sophia and those known to her but has left pain that will never be erased. It is a hard task to cope with every day especially by her younger siblings who had looked up to her.
According to Powers, “every time a single thought of her comes to mind it brings about a lot of questions as to why he had to end her life so brutally.” But what is worst is that Roopnarine is now in the streets somewhere roaming freely and probably preying on someone else’s child, he stated.
