HUNDREDS of people said goodbye to 21-year-old murder victim Sheema Mangar yesterday.
The atmosphere was emotionally charged during a service in Better Hope Assembly of God Church and when the casket containing her body was taken to her parents’ residence, at Mon Repos, also on the East Coast Demerara. The religious service started at noon and dozens of mourners, including her family members, colleagues, friends and others, cried openly when the corpse was being viewed.
Loud wails persisted in the church amidst songs, hymns, prayers and the eulogy and continued after the viewing, from 14:00 h, when the dead woman’s corpse was at her  parents’ home and a large gathering got their final glimpse of it.
Police are treating Mangar’s death as a murder and two suspects were taken into custody since she died, after being run over by a motor car in which the man who had snatched her Blackberry cell phone escaped.
The former Demerara Bank employee had been awaiting transportation at the junction of Camp Street and North Road, in Georgetown, last Friday evening when the Blackberry cell phone was stolen from her and a third suspect is being sought.
Mangar, of Lot 675 Mon Repos, succumbed to her injuries on Saturday at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.
On Wednesday night, her fellow employees, walked with lit lanterns and silently retraced her final steps, in tribute to her memory.