NAIMAWATTIE Persaud believes that foul play was involved in the death of her 22-year-old daughter, Romeza Sukdeo, whose body was discovered in a clump of bushes on Sunday in a decomposing state.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle on Monday morning, the woman explained that she last saw her alive on Diwali night when she left home to visit a family member. She never returned. The family received the news on Sunday that her remains were found in a clump of bushes.

Ms. Persaud said that her daughter spent two days with her before she left home on Friday, something she does not really do often as she has been living on the seawall and would be moving from place to place in her hunt for marijuana-something that she has been doing since the age of 16.

The woman said that from then to the time of her daughter’s death, she has been trying to get her to return home and she has been very reluctant to do so. The mother said too that authorities cautioned her that the child was 16 and could be making her own decisions. There were also the influences that came from the persons who have been supplying the young woman with illegal substances.

The mother spoke of her daughter’s first decision to leave home. “When she meet 16 she left and go on the road and we went for her and try to get her home back and we could not and she end up start quarrel and curse and about some friend that betray her on the beach then she went by a friend and that friend start giving her weed and cocaine and she remained on the road ever since,” the distraught mother explained.

She explained that she went to the police and a number of other organisations to assist her in getting her young child back into the home, but those were often met with explanations that the child was of the age to make her own decisions. According to Ms. Persaud, there was also one instance where she had to cry as she walked home without her daughter by her side. “When I tried to get this girl to bring her home back I got no satisfaction. I also went to the welfare in this area and got no satisfaction and it’s grieving my heart to leave my child and walk away and come home and I come back from there and then I went to the station and they said that she is 16 years and she is old enough to make her own decisions,” the woman said.

The police said that the body of the woman was found clad in a multi-coloured dress and she also had on a skirt but no footwear. The dead woman’s mother told the Guyana Chronicle that her daughter, while she was not living with her, made a few visits to her home and also attempted to get back on track and abandoned the whole idea of using marijuana and other illegal substances.

According to her, Sukdeo had also mentioned the name of two persons and said that if at any point something should happen to her or should she die, that her mother must go to the police with those names. This is because the two would usually beat her and take away her money and other items. She also reportedly told her mother that one of the men forced her to sell sex so that she can make money and bring same to him. The distraught mother is also alleging that her neighbour, who is also in the habit of using illegal substances, might have some answers regarding her daughter’s death and they have been giving conflicting stories surrounding what they might know of the young lady’s death.