A pensioner of Barnwell north, East Bank Demerara was discovered dead yesterday morning in a trench after she had been missing for a day.
Sixty-five-year-old Rita Fredericks of Twelfth Field, Barnwell north, went missing on Tuesday night after leaving a shop where she was consuming alcohol.
Her body was pulled out from a trench yesterday morning by police, who were summoned to the scene. No marks of violence were found on the body.
Based on reports, the woman and her husband Isaac Benjamin were at a shop drinking, but she left him there saying she was going home. Sometime after, when he got home, she was not there. Searches for her on Wednesday by villagers and her family were fruitless.
The woman’s daughter, Marcelle Fredericks told Stabroek News that the discovery was made around 10 am yesterday, by her mother’s friend Hettie Thornhill.
According to Thornhill, she was about to dip water from the trench to take a bath when she noticed an unusual object in the corner of the trench among the weeds. Fearing the worst, Thornhill said, she immediately called out to Marcelle and they went to check only to discover Rita’s body. The body was on the opposite side of the trench when it was spotted by Thornhill.
Marcelle explained to Stabroek News she only returned to the village yesterday and learnt her mother was missing.
“I came back in the village and hear they can’t find mommy, so I went and asked my father what happened. I say is truth y’all can’t find her and asked he what happen,” the daughter recounted. She added that her father explained to her that on Tuesday after he collected his pension, he returned home and bought two bottles of rum. He and his wife then sat at the shop drinking with some friends.
“He say when the place get dark she ask he if he is not ready to go home, but he told her go up he is coming and she left and walk up,” she added.
The grieving daughter said her father told her that when he got home, Rita was not there and he began to enquire but no one had seen the woman.
Marcelle said that after they discovered the body in the corner of the trench they summoned the police, who later questioned Benjamin.
However, the daughter said, it seemed that her mother died by drowning; she probably fell into the trench as she was making her way home.
A post-mortem examination is expected to be conducted today to determine the cause of death.
