Paradise girl found in shallow grave

…in village cemetery

The body of a young woman, last seen alive on Mashramani day, was found in a shallow grave in a cemetery at Paradise, East Coast Demerara last evening.

Patricia Younge, 19, who lived in the village, had left home shortly before noon on Sunday to see the Mashramani float parade in Georgetown.

A police source told Stabroek News that it seems that Younge was raped before being killed. Initial investigations suggested that the crimes were the work of one person.

Patricia Younge
Patricia Younge

Her boyfriend with whom she lived, remained in police custody for questioning up to last night.

According to her friends, Younge, who was an employee of the Bettencourt’s restaurant, never returned home.  They said it was only after she was formally reported missing yesterday afternoon that a search began for her and her decomposing body was eventually found in a shallow grave, under a tree, in the Paradise cemetery.

“I chat with her on Whatsapp at 11:29 [am] Mash day and she said she was going on the road and ask me where I going. I told her have fun… At 8:25pm, she ask if I going out and I said no…that was the last I hear from she,” a co-worker told Stabroek News.

Younge’s parents are both deceased and she had lived with an uncle and grandmother at Plaisance up to nearly two years ago when she moved in with her boyfriend.

Her uncle, Kewis Younge, said  that he had not seen the young woman for months. He said it wasn’t until her boyfriend visited his home yesterday, to report that he had not seen Younge since she left on Mashramani day, that he knew his niece was missing.

“She boyfriend come and tell we she to go Mash and ain’t come back…we make report at Brickdam, we check the hospital and nothing…. Today, he said he see one of her sandals on the road here and we decide to search and find the body under the tree in the cemetery there,” he added.

As they lamented the need for street lights along the desolate and bushy road leading into village, residents speculated that the woman was probably preyed upon as she walked into the village on Sunday night.

“The bus drop you out here and you have this black stretch to walk if you see you don’t have taxi money. This is dangerous for men much less women alone,” a senior female resident said.

She, however, questioned why Younge did not call her boyfriend to accompany her from the Public Road home as is the norm for most women returning home at night.