In New York…
A 22-year-old New York-based Guyanese woman, who reportedly went missing since mid last week, is feared dead after New York Police and fire fighters early Saturday morning discovered the charred remains of a woman in the back seat of a burning BMW vehicle relatives claimed to be hers, at the corner of Jamaica Avenue and 130th Street in New York.
Relatives said Oma Devi Megabaran-Saran, also known as ‘Annie’, left her marital home last Monday and travelled to another part of  New York where she spent about two days with her mother,  Data Megabaran.
Her distraught father, Naresh  Rajendra Megabaran who resides at Naraine Street, Annandale, East Coast Demerara yesterday told the Guyana Chronicle that, early last week, he called his wife in New York and Oma answered the phone. The man said he was surprised when she answered the phone, and asked what she was doing there, but she jocularly asked him if she couldn’t be at her mother. She later explained that she was spending a few days with her mom and would return home on Thursday.
Meanwhile, during the time that Oma was at her mother’s home, the father said she chatted on the phone with a relative who lives in Orlando, Florida, and mentioned that she was finalizing arrangements for the purchase of a house and would be doing that after leaving her mother’s home in a few days.
The woman was quoted as saying that she wanted it to be a surprise for her husband, Aaron Saran, who is a member of the US army and lives in California.
On leaving her mother’s home on Tuesday, Oma Devi reportedly told her mother that she was going for a ‘walk’ elsewhere and would be back at her marital home by Thursday. Described as a very private person, the 22-year-old woman did not go into details, and so her mother apparently knew nothing about the arrangements to purchase a property.
But on Thursday, when her mother called her home and got no reply, she became worried.  After not being able to make contact with her daughter over the next two days, the distraught woman made a report to the New York police on Friday night.  She apparently described for them, the car her daughter was driving.
The next morning, around 4:00 hrs, the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the New York Fire Department (FDNY) received a call that a BMW was burning at the corner of Jamaica Avenue and 130th Street. They hastened to the scene and the fire was put out.
According to a report carried on WPIX-TV in the United States:  “…after putting out the blaze they discovered an unidentified person in the rear seat of the 2000 BMW.”

Emergency medical technicians pronounced the person dead at the scene. The online report on Saturday said the identity of the victim who was found ‘unconscious with serious bodily trauma’, was being withheld, pending notification of the family.  It said investigation into the cause of death is ongoing, but that it was being treated as a homicide.
Meanwhile, relatives are in a state of panic and deep grief, even as they await the results of further medical procedures which would positively determine whether the charred female found in the burning car is that of Oma Devi Megabaran-Saran.
What relatives are pondering, however, is why would Oma be in the back seat of the car when she was supposed to be driving herself.  They are working on the theory that their loved one was robbed and set alight.
Oma, who grew up at Annandale, was educated at St. Joseph’s  High School in Georgetown and migrated to the United States of America in 1996.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Oma was about two months pregnant and she leaves to mourn her husband, Aaron Saran; parents – Rajendra and Data, and brother – Tony Megabaran, who also lives in the United States.
The charred remains of  her body will most likely be laid to rest in the USA, her father said yesterday.