Berbice miner arraigned for murder of teenage girl

Thirty-eight-year-old Wickroy Mitchell, also called “Shatta”, of Number 53 Village, Corentyne, Berbice, was on Thursday arraigned for the murder of a teenage girl, whose body was found behind her home at Coanna Backdam, Five Star, North West District (NWD).

Mitchell was not required to plead to the indictable charge which stated that between November 14 and 15, 2020, he murdered the 16-year-old girl of Baramita, NWD. He virtually appeared before Magistrate Sunil Scarce at the Port Kaituma Police Station, Region One (Barima-Waini).
He was remanded to prison until February 2, 2021 when the Preliminary Inquiry is expected to commence. Guyana Times understands that after committing the act, the accused fled the scene and returned to Berbice, where he was arrested.
It was reported that the motionless body of the teen was found on Sunday last behind her dwelling place. It was suspected that she had been raped and strangled to death.
The preliminary Police investigation revealed that the Saturday prior to the discovery, about 12:00h, the now dead teen and her mother turned up at a shop where they purchased alcohol and started to consume it. They were reportedly in the company of several persons.
About 15:00h on the said day, the mother and daughter became heavily intoxicated, but insisted on purchasing more alcohol. They reportedly bought a quarter bottle of alcohol and some rice after which they left in the presence of a male with whom they were imbibing.
According to the owner of the shop, the teen’s mother returned to the shop later in the day and spent some time. On Sunday about 07:30h, the body of the teen was found lying in a motionless state behind the home she shared with her mother. An alarm was raised and ranks from the Matthews Ridge Police Station were contacted.
The body of the dead teen was picked up and escorted to the Port Kaituma Hospital mortuary, where a post-mortem was performed and confirmed that she was manually strangled to death.