DPP awaiting further Police probe since August 2019 – DPP Office

Nurse Schenise Apple’s death

As family members of Schenise Apple continue to plead for her killers to be brought to justice one year after her death, the Director of Public Prosecutions’ Office has confirmed that the case file was sent for legal advice, but it was returned to the investigators.

The lifeless body of the 26-year-old was found hanging in the Nurses’ Hostel by her colleagues on July 2, 2019. It was initially suspected that she committed suicide, but from the inception, her family believed otherwise.
After a post-mortem examination, the young woman’s death was ruled a homicide.
The DPP’s Office told <<<Guyana Times>>> on Tuesday that the file was sent there some time in July-August 2019 and was reviewed by the DPP, Shalimar Ali-Hack, but owing to several loopholes, it was sent back for further investigation to be conducted.
At that time, the detectives had given an undertaking to complete investigation into the issues raised by the DPP and return the file to the Kingston, Georgetown office in September 2019.
To date, this publication understands that the file has not been returned to the DPP’s Office. Attempts to contact Regional Police Commander Ramesh Ashram last Wednesday proved futile.
A few days ago, the now dead woman’s mother, Shonette Apple expressed frustration with the handling of her daughter’s case and reiterated her calls for justice.

“I need justice. I need closure. They know who did it. There is nobody above against the law. Nobody should be covering for nobody. You do the crime, face the time. I don’t care who you are, you must face your consequences. Not because you working in a big job, you must not face the consequences. I just need justice and without justice, I will not stop and will continue to fight. Enough is enough. My daughter was drugged, raped, and murdered – I know that,” the grieving mother stated.
She recalled that on July 1, 2019, she spoke with her daughter for the last time. The young nurse told her mother that she was busy at work and she promised to return the call, but that never happened.
On July 2, 2019, although Shonette sent messages and attempted to contact her daughter, there was no response. As such, the mother became worried and tried to contact one of her daughter’s colleagues, but she too did not answer.
Later that day, a sister of the now dead nurse called the colleague and this time she answered, but with the devastating news.
Later in the evening, a young woman visited the family and showed them photos of the young nurse hanging, but the grieving mother immediately knew something was amiss since her child was not capable of taking her own life.
The autopsy was later conducted and there were some discrepancies in the report. The doctors initially placed the time of death at 01:00h, but later changed that to 06:00h.
“As far as I am concerned, there was some cookery trying to go down there,” the mother stated.
The family is sure that Schenise was raped and then murdered and her suicide staged, and wants the authorities to take the investigation seriously. In fact, the mother received a telephone call from a Police rank on Saturday requesting a statement.
This, Shonette stated, gave her some hope the perpetrators will finally be brought to justice.
The young nurse was posted to the Mahdia Hospital from Linden Hospital Complex back in November of 2018 as part of her contract and worked at the Mahdia Hospital until her demise.