Woman found in river drowned, autopsy finds

-daughter suspects foul play
Cornelia Singh, the woman whose body was discovered floating in the Palmyra section of the Berbice River last Wednesday, was laid to rest on Tuesday at Corentyne.

According to relatives of the 43-year-old woman, the post-mortem examination (PME) conducted on the body revealed that she died from drowning.  “We’re not really ready to make comments as yet. We just got her buried today [on Tuesday],” a relative, who only identified herself as Pam, said.

Relatives did not say where the PME was conducted or by whom. However, police had stated in a press release last week that the body was at the New Amsterdam Hospital mortuary. Stabroek News understands that relatives had flown in to identify the body earlier this week.

Joe Singh, another of the woman’s relatives, explained that Cornelia would leave without telling anyone where she was going. According to the man, she had been staying with cousins in Corentyne when she went missing. “We didn’t realize that she was missing at the time because she has this habit of leaving without telling anyone where she was going,” he said. “No one realized that she was missing until the body was found because of this reason,” the man stated.

Stabroek News was unable to learn from Singh exactly when Cornelia left her cousins’ house and how long after her body was found..

Andrea Metzger, the deceased woman’s daughter, had contacted Stabroek News via email last Friday. In a comment Metzger left attached to the online version of the story on the Stabroek News website, she stated that whoever was responsible for her mother’s death would pay and she believed foul play was involved.

Further, she had said Cornelia left Canada “some two to three weeks ago” for Guyana. Metzger had told Stabroek News that her mother had left for Guyana without informing anyone. Further, she had stated that the woman was last seen by relatives but she was not sure who her mother was staying with. Metzger’s comments, sent via email last Friday, were published Saturday in an article captioned: ‘Body found floating in Berbice River may be woman from Canada’.