By Oluatoyin Alleyne
The battered and naked body of a 15-year-old girl was found early yesterday morning on the lonely Hope Estate Access Road, East Coast Demerara.
The body of Sheliza Khan called ‘Shelly’, who only turned fifteen last April, was discovered lying face down hours after she went missing from a Mahaica Chinese restaurant.
Police last evening said that the girl had suspected gunshot wounds to her head and other marks of violence about her body. The lawmen found four .32 spent shells at the scene.
A grief-stricken Chanawattie Khan identified the body of her youngest child yesterday afternoon at the Lyken Funeral Home and told Stabroek News that her daughter’s face was so battered that she was almost unrecognisable. She and other relatives rushed down to the funeral home after being informed by the police that the body was found. The woman said from all indications her daughter was also sexually assaulted. Some of her teeth were knocked out and the back of her head bashed in.
“I know she body and I recognise she but it was hard, she had on pink cutex (nail polish) and I recognise it. But if you see wah dem do to me daughter she nah deserve to dead like dah. All she teeth dem knock out and she had cut pun she mouth,” the woman said.
When Stabroek News visited the area where the teenager was found there were some spots of blood visible. The area where she was found is very lonely but persons living in the Hope Scheme, which is opposite the area, reported that they heard what sounded like gunshots sometime early yesterday morning but did not venture outside.
It is not clear who discovered the corpse but one woman told Stabroek News that she rushed to the scene after hearing reports and saw the body lying on its stomach. The woman said no one attempted to turn over the body but they observed that the back of the head had a wound and there was lots of blood.
She said there was no sign of clothing next to the naked body.
Chanawattie recalled that three weeks ago her daughter was threatened by a man who lives in the area. According to the woman her daughter reported the matter to the Mahaica police but no action was taken against the man. “She come home and tell me how he tell she dat he like she and if he can’t get she no man could get she.
He get he wife and children but he tell she, how he go lef he wife fo she and mind she and she report the matter because she frighten he,” the woman said.
The teenager left her Lot 50 Lancaster Village, East Coast Demerara home, at around 7:30 on Saturday night in the company of a neighbour to purchase Chinese food at Mahaica. Prior to her departure she was playing cricket in the neighbourhood and upon her arrival home she found that most of the food her mother had cooked that day was already consumed. “She tell me how she want rice and me give she seven hundred dollar and I went and check with (name given) to mek sure that she going with she,” the woman said. She said she was not at home when her daughter left and did not know until yesterday morning that she had not returned home. Chanawattie explained that she does not sleep home some nights and her daughter would usually be with her older sister in the bottom flat of a two-flat house with their brother and his wife in the top flat.
According to the neighbour, shortly after they arrived at the Chinese shop she got a call from her husband on her cellular phone. At the time they were in the process of purchasing the food and she left the teenager in the shop and went outside to answer the phone. “I lef she in the shop and I went outside and because of the noise I had to go behind a wall and stoop down to hear my husband and when I finish and go back in the shop I ent see Shelly no where.” At the time the young girl was wearing an orange top and pink pants.
The woman said she started looking for the girl but no one seemed to know where she had gone.
Questioned as to whether anyone spoke to them while in the restaurant, the neighbour said no one attempted to talk to them and as far as she knew the teenager did not seem to know anyone while there.
After some time passed and the girl still did not return the neighbour said she decided to call a friend who drives a taxi as she had no money to go home.
She said she and the taxi driver drove around in the area looking for the girl but there was no sign of her and she decided to return home. “I say she must be see somebody and talking to them and she would go home after. So yesterday morning when I get up I went to she house and then she sister tell me she ent reach home yet so we went and tell she mother,” the neighbour said.
The child’s mother said that after looking for her daughter and not finding her she decided to report the matter to the police.
Later in the day she was told that a body was found and she travelled to the city and identified her child’s body.
According to her mother she stopped attending school sometime earlier this year and went to Berbice and lived with a man for about six weeks.
But she said she later brought her back home after Sheliza called and explained that the man was having an affair with someone else. “But the boy ent had no problem with she coming back because he had he girlfriend,” the woman said.
She described her daughter as someone who was always jovial and “love to dance.”
Answer to Flawless: YES this is going to be another unsolved case like Monica Reese. This is something quite typical that goes on in Guyana…do you know why? All those minister and Police Officers sitting on their head…they have only been talking about how to decrease the crime situation in Guyana…however, nothing has been done.
MY sympathies go out to the family of Sheliza Khan.
I
Everyday as I get up I am eager to read SN to see what is going on in my country, however sometimes I regret doing so because of the headlines.
How can people be so cruel and inhumane to each other? Shaleiza was only 15 yrs old, her whole life ahead of her.
I trust that this barbaric and heartless crime is solved and that the person or persons involved face the full brunt of the law..
However, I wonder if it will be solved, since the GPF makes a lot of empty promises which are hardly fulfilled. There are so many gruesome murders that have taken place over the years and to date, they have not been solved.
I am truly disgusted with what is going on in Guyana. Crime is so rampant, it seems as if that is the only thing that one can expect now in Guyana. I know that crime is worldwide but, oh gosh, it is too much in Guyana!!!!!!!!!! When will it end? When will crime be reduced?
My heart goes out to the family. They have my condolences and I hope that they will be able to get through this extremely difficult and heart-wrenching episode in their lives.
I agree with guy123 because Kaieteur News reports a different version from the neighbour what actually happened that evening.The neighbour claimed they both had two beers each with some guy in a white route 50 mini bus, then left them to answer her phone, when she came back they were gone.Sounds fishy does’nt it? A Gil Baka!!!
Why do SN and Kaieteur News have such different version of the story? Quite often I have noticed the same story being carried by the two media houses but with different factual details such as age, address, ect
Who is the public to believe in those cases? This should not happen and there needs to be a commission setup to ensure that these two newspaper vet their info before going to press.
While I have not read KN’s version of this story, what the neighbour said in this version does sound fishy. This neighbour is definitely hiding something. Her story does not add up.
MY deepest condolences to the family of this child. This is an abominable crime committed by a demented mind.There are too many perverts and misogynists roaming the streets of Guyana preying on girl children and women.I do hope that this perpetrator is apprehended and brought to justice swiftly. Castration of any individual found guilty of such heinous crime without murder should be mandatory.Where murder is involved the death penalty would be appropriate.It is my fervent desire and hope the legislature would unanimously pass such a law.
What say you Jagdeo and Corbin at least this is one piece of legislation you can both agree on.
l
This so-called friend of Shaleiza needs to be taken in for questioning. Her story does not pan out at all about talking on a cell phone and because of noise, etc she could not hear and when the conversation ended her friend was not in sight. Rubbish!!! Bunkum!!!!
What she i saying,a s far as I know, only happens in the movies. Seeing that the young woman went into the Chinese shop to buy food, and someone comes to abduct her, i would think that the first thing that she would do is to raise an alarm by screaming or shouting out.
She knows more than she is willing to admit. The mere fact that there was no report of screaming or hollering on Sheleiza’s part says to me that whomever she met there or whatever happened, she had to have gone with someone she was familiar with and not a total stranger.
The friend needs to be pressured into saying what exactly happened. If she refuses to speak, she should be held for withholding infomation or aiding and abetting in murder. Let’s see if she will remain silent or not!!!
Let us look to see how this story unfolds.
I am deeply saddened by this tragedy. It is a reprehensible, dastardly act.
I do hope the actor in chief COP and his staff could do the job they are paid to do, ie “serve, protect and defend the citizens”, of dastards who took this innocent life.
Yesterday I celebrated father’s day with my children and grandchildren, and it was such a joy for me. The mother and father could not do the same with their daughter, how sad.
To the family, my deepest condolences, know that your child is now with the Divine protector. Though her physical presence will be missed, be assured that she will always be there with you in spirit.
My prayers are with you as we all mourn her loss, but let us also celebrate the time she was with us, as she now rest with God.
Be blessed
A sad day for youths and people as a whole in GT.
Yes, it was a horrible way to die and rape is such a degrading and debilitating act. Survivors are emotionally and psychologically scarred. The perpetrators of this heinous crime deserve their life being taken from them.
No one chooses to mention this girl was a troubled teenager who was seriously neglected and failed by those around her.
As a high school dropout, she should have been given special attention to return her to the education system. As a runaway, she should have been given special attention to prevent recurrence.
A fifteen year old female allowed to go to a bar with a married woman and have a “few beers” is unheard off in Canada. Why is it accepted in Guyana?
A child was left to her own devices, to act as an adult, make erroneous decisions and suffered the consequences of her rash actions, resulting in rape, torture and death.
Ask yourselves this:-
Who is to blame? Was this preventable? How can we avoid this senseless crime from recurring?