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.”
My sincere condolences to the mother, family and friends of Sheliza Khan.
I would suggest that the police focus closely on the neighbour but fear that they would not have a clue about proper investigative predures and are likely to botch this case as they have the hundreds of others that go unsolved.
Will the person with whom she cohabited in Berbice before turning 15 years of age be prosecuted under the existing underage sex law or must someone ring a hugh bell before the police thinks of this?
Very tragic indeed and it underscores the barbarity which prevails in Guyana today. Almost everyone has that boiling lust for the blood and death of others, no matter how young the victims.
Doesn’t matter if it is an urban or rural landscape, the devils are always on the prowl.
The SN story however is disappointingly limited and when you read the KN article you get a better grasp of the issues.
A drop out, who benefits from lax parenting and is abetted into a common law relationship. Danger brewing. A child, who both by her fascination with the glamorous lifestyle and casual parenting, befriends shady company. Equally dangerous.
I am not justifying this horrific outcome, as anyone could have encountered this deplorable fate, but I am constantly aggrieved when the home situation abandons these young people.
The minister who flaunts herself on the podium of human services while discounting the severity of human abuse in this country, ought to make these perpetrators “walk on coals”. I am doubtful any of that would happen though, as we all know the only articulation comes as defense of ridiculous government rhetoric. Moreover, the police should be able to apprehend those bus boys with whom this child and her friend were apparently fraternizing. Finally, the suspicious friend should be made to undergo a lie detector test (this is what it should be used for).
SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! WOE! WOE! WOE!
It seems to me whenever an incident occurs and reported to the police station, zero actions are taken. The article stated that she had some problems with another male and it was reported but no actions was taken. If investigators determine that the male who the report was filed against turns out to be the murderer, shame on the police. I have read of so many incidents that occurred and reported to the police station which later turned into someone getting killed. The police needs to stop being lazy and do their jobs to prevent these types of murders.
The neighbor needs to be questioned. Her story is a bit skeptical.
This is a crime of passion. The extent of the injuries and the viciousness of it indicates, anger, lots of it. Sheliza knows this individual.
This is one with whom she was emotionally involved with or one who was emotionally involved with her. The police should start there.
This is a very sad case.
In the first instance, why was this child allowed to have her own way and stop going to school.
Secondly, she was only 15 years. Why was she allowed to go and live with a man in Berbice?
Was this poor parental control? I would think so.
My sympathy goes out to the family. This should have never happened. I hope the Police catch the criminal who did this to her. The neighbour should be interrogated on this matter.
Firstly, I would like to extend condolences to the family of the late Sheliza Khan.
I read both the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News, and both stories differ, but in my judgement It is sad indeed at how a 15 year-old’s life came to a tragic demise, and I do hope that other people or children take this as an example and learn from it.
I myself would like to know what a 15 year-old was doing in a resturant in the company of men, she should have been at home.( According to Kaieteur News) The parent/s or guardian/s have a lot to be blamed, because when all is said and done she is still a minor.
What I am also appalled at, is why is a minor drinking beers…??
While some people are chary of their environs, others fall prey to it. I trust that the perpetrators of such a heinous act be brought to justice, and this doesn’t become another unsolved case to the list.
People, especially children should be more focused about educational horizons and making the best of their lives, a lot of the children in today’s society are living way too fast for their age.
I’m not here to be judgmental, but reflecting on my school days to now….TIMES have changed tremendously…
It’s so sad to see what happened to this young girl. It’s a pity to see that Guyana has not changed much. How much has to be shed before people say to themselves that I will not do this to someone because I don’t want someone to do that to me. You know what hurt me the most is that the mother let her 15 YEAR OLD daughter go and live with a man. Mom you should have known better.
The monster or monsters who did these despicable acts to this child should be hunted down and no quarter given.
She can hardly be called a “child” when she was living with a man in Berbice
This young woman in her prime did not deserve to did like this. She was bothered by a married man, she was terrified of him, she reported the matter to the Mahaica police, nothing was done and now she is dead.
Perhaps proper policing could have saved the life of this young Guyanese.
What would it take to stop wanton Police Lethargy in my country which I am now afraid to visit with my children?
Sweettouch 618
This tragic incident reflects several combined failures. A misguided teenager out at night with a ‘neighbor/friend’ who failed miserably as an adult in charge of a minor entrusted to her care. Add a mother who, perhaps unthinkingly, devolved her responsibilities to an untrustworthy person. Further add an apathetic community that sanctions access to alcohol by minors (two beers!). Then throw in a group of idle, mobile, unsocialized, depraved, likely drug-crazed, objects posing as men, armed and aware that the GPF has little interest in and few resources for crime-solving (aren’t they busy beating the bush for Fineman & Co.?)….. Well, unfortunately for us all, this is the result.
That’s right,mate,I agree with you there.