Dickwon Nigel Adams, the boyfriend of the pregnant Stanleytown, New Amsterdam, teenager whose body was fished out of the Berbice River last week, was yesterday remanded to prison after he was charged with her murder. Adams, 19, of Lot 17 Smithfield, New Amsterdam and DeVeldt Village, Upper Berbice River, was yesterday charged with murdering Melissa Soman, 17, of Number 58 Stanleytown, New Amsterdam.
Adams, who appeared at the Linden Magistrate’s Court via Zoom yesterday, was not required to enter a plea to the charge.
Magistrate Wanda Fortune then remanded him to prison.
He will return to court on August 7th for police to give a progress report to the court on their readiness to proceed with the preliminary inquiry into the charge.
Soman, the mother of a two-year-old son, was returning home from the Berbice River around 8. 30 pm two Wednesdays ago when Adams allegedly attacked her with a piece of wood, causing her to fall overboard and drown.
An autopsy found that she died from drowning and blunt force trauma to the head.
Additionally, the autopsy also confirmed that Soman, 17, also known as ‘Lisa,’ was pregnant.
Relatives had told Stabroek News that teenager was at least two months pregnant at the time of her death.
Police have said Adams, 22, had confessed to assaulting the young woman with a piece of wood, causing her to fall overboard.
The accused had related to investigators that he, Soman and a relative of his, who was also in police custody, were at a birthday party, when he noticed Soman dancing with the relative, which led to him using a piece of wood to assault Soman. Soman then proceeded to the relative’s boat, where the accused then continued to assault Soman and the relative. However, it is claimed, that Soman then jumped overboard to escape the beating and was rescued by the relative, after which the boyfriend continued to assault them with the piece of wood, causing Soman to fall overboard for a second time. She later disappeared under the water.
