As the five men held on suspicion of murdering 18-year-old Qualfon receptionist Raynelle Benfield remain in Police custody, the Post-Mortem Examination (PME) has confirmed that she was alive when she was bashed in the face.
Government Pathologist, Dr Nehaul Singh conducted the autopsy on Monday and determined Benfield’s cause of death as crushed injuries to the face by a blunt
Murdered receptionist Raynelle Benfield
object. The PME also determined that the young woman was not raped at the time of her demise and that the burn marks were as a result of burns from the sun.
Benfield was last seen by colleagues early Saturday evening and was found partly unclothed in a Muslim cemetery near her Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara home just after 07:00h on Monday. As the Police continue to figure out the timeline surrounding the teen’s final hours, the suspects are allegedly reluctant to disclose what they may know about the ghastly crime. It was observed that Police in C Division (East Coast Demerara) were yet to make a breakthrough on the teen’s murder.
The teen’s relatives were on Monday questioned by investigators about her social life and acquaintances which prompted ranks to visit the homes of several young men in the area. These young men were arrested and one of them was Benfield’s boyfriend, a suspected gang member who had reportedly dated a female relative of Benfield in the recent past.
When the teen’s body was discovered, her hands were resting on her chest while the pair of jeans she was wearing was pulled to her knees. Guyana Times reported that the teen left home on Saturday morning for work and after she did not return home that evening, her relatives were under the impression that she was working overtime. Her colleagues also stated that they last saw her around 18:00h on Saturday.
