The body of a 17-year-old Stanleytown, New Amster-dam girl was fished out of the Berbice River on Thursday evening and two persons have since been arrested as police are seeking to determine if she was a victim of foul play.
Melissa Soman, also known as ‘Lisa,’ 17, who was the mother of a two-year-old, of Number 58 Stanleytown, New Amster-dam, was returning home from the Berbice River around 8.30 pm on Wednesday when it is alleged that she jumped overboard.
However, her parents suspect foul play due to the state in which her body was discovered.
Police have since arrested two persons, including her boyfriend.
In a statement, the Guyana Police Force yesterday said that a person of interest in custody has since claimed that the teenager was returning home from a birthday party in Gaetroy Village, Berbice River.
The man, a 48-year-old New Amsterdam resident, reportedly said that while they were in his boat Soman told him that she and her boyfriend were having problems and then she plunged over-board. “He alleged that he immediately went to her rescue but was unable to save her,” the force’s statement said.
The police added that on Thursday, around 3 pm, Soman’s body was seen floating along a bank of the river in Gaetroy Village and it was retrieved. “The upper portion of her body, her face and right hand appeared to have been eaten by fish,” the statement added.
Her body was trans-ported to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital in order for a post-mortem examination to be conducted.
Meanwhile, Melissa’s father, Paul Soman, who was extremely emotional yesterday, refused to believe that his daughter jumped from the boat overboard.
He said after he returned home from working in Georgetown he had sent a message to his daughter indicating that wanted to talk with her. “I get the message that they suspect my daughter drown but they want to know how she raise so quickly,” he added.
He added that his daughter left home about two months ago to travel into the Berbice River to reside with her boyfriend, who she had only known for three months. “I was working so I wasn’t here when she gone. I didn’t get to see her,” he said, while noting that the boyfriend is from the Canje Creek area.
He stressed his belief that her boyfriend may have more information to share about his daughter’s death. “She told her mother that they two of them fight but she never told me if he ever knock her or so,” he noted. “I feel they should hold him and question him because I think he would get knowledge,” the father added.
The boyfriend is the second person who was taken into custody by police.
According to the senior Soman, when he saw his daughter’s body, “her whole head from her neck to head damage, she didn’t have an eye, you only seeing her teeth. Her nice, nice hair burnt and paste on her head. Her right hand, all her flesh burn off, you only seeing her bare bones and knuckles, and when they turn her on her back, her neck shaking. I don’t know if her neck break or what.”
Meanwhile, according to the man his daughter dropped out of school at the age of 15 after she became pregnant. As Guyana’s age of consent is 16, the teary eye man said the father of the child was charged but his relatives pleaded with them to drop the matter “but they never give nothing after that. Is like the child ain’t get father or mother now. The child with me staying and we really need some help.”
Paul Soman appealed yesterday for assistance to lay his daughter to rest. He can be contacted on 655 1283.
