Family members of Shendel George, the Special Constable who is alleged to have shot herself in the throat at the Caricom Rice Mills at Anna Regina, Essequibo Coast, suspect a case of homicide, although police in ‘G’ Division are treating the matter of her death as suicide.
According to reports reaching Guyana Times, George’s relatives are convinced that was murdered. They say the incident follows several threats she had received in the events leading up to the May 4th discovery.
Dead: Shendal George
Contrary to reported statements made by fellow security guard George Bisnauth, Bridget Alphonso (mother of the deceased) alleges that there was no gun next to George’s body, and she (mother) was the second person to visit the scene.
A bereaved Alphanso suspects foul play was involved in her daughter’s death. She related that when she had visited her daughter on May 4, she had known something was amiss.
“I does normally check on her when she working. I would carry snacks and ask her what time she coming off. So me going and buy something for my daughter to eat, and something urged me to go to Caricom. Sometimes I would see her looking through the window when I get there, but on the afternoon in question, I didn’t see her,” Alphonso told this newspaper.
The mother said she then thrice asked the other security guard where her daughter was, and was given a different response each time.
“I stand up for like 5-9 minutes when I asked first where my daughter was. He said she gone out. The second time (I asked), he said she gone somewhere around the compound. After 15 minutes, I ask he the third time where ma daughter! He said, ‘She mussy deh toilet, leh me go check’. This got me wondering,” the woman related.
Alphonso said she was then told that her daughter had fallen down.
“The man followed me up to a certain distance, and then he send me up a step. Then he walk back to the gate without rendering any assistance or calling anyone. When me reach the door, me saw my daughter with her hands out.”
The distraught mother related that she first looked for the gun, but there was none in sight. This, she is contending, indicates that SC George did not take her life, as was reported.
Alphanso related that she had asked this other guard about the gun, but the security had responded that he did not know where it was. She said she then immediately made her way to the police station to file a report, but on her return to the scene, she was surprised to find that a gun had been planted on the scene.
George’s aunt, “Ruxie”, had been the last known person to have spent quality time with her niece. According to Ruxie, “Shendel isn’t the suicide type. Normally, if something is wrong, she brings it forth immediately”.
Everyone in the home circle attested that the deceased had no reason to end her life, negating the possibility of suicide.
A relative, however, recalled that Shendel George had been threatened by a colleague sometime in the past. That relative said the threat had been to the effect that if the late Shendel George did not leave her employment, she would leave the same way her cousin had left. Her cousin had been killed on the job about a year ago.
Guyana Times had previously reported that at about 17:00h on the day of the incident, Shendel George had left the guard hut and had gone for a walk around the compound. At about 17:45h, her mother had come to the gate and had enquired about her. The other guard had left in search of her, and had found her motionless body lying on her back in the toilet area with a suspected gunshot wound to her throat. She was fully dressed in her uniform.
Shendel George’s body is presently at the Suddie Public Hospital mortuary awaiting a post-mortem examination to determine the cause of her death. Meanwhile, police are continuing to investigate the incident.
