-body dumped in village trench
A YOUNG woman met a horrible end at the hands of rapist(s) sometime Saturday morning. Her badly battered and bound body was discovered in a trench at Nismes, West Bank Demerara. This newspaper managed to catch up with relatives as they congregated at the La Grange Police Station, and upon investigation, a most disturbing story began to unfold.
Relatives said 21-year-old Leonaka Johnson of Nismes Village, West Bank Demerara left home at approximately 19:00hrs Thursday night saying she was going to the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station to visit a male police rank who had recently started dating her.
Her sister, Otto Johnson, said that Leonaka called her from her cell-phone at around 21:00hrs that night and told her she was at the rank’s home, because he’d invited her there.
Otto said when her sister did not return home at 23:00hrs, she dialled her cell-phone and found that it had surprisingly been turned off.
As the hours ticked by, family members became alarmed and kept calling Leonaka on her cell-phone, but continued to get her voicemail.
Relatives noted that it was quite unlike Leonaka to stay out late, or to turn off her cell-phone, since she was disciplined and spent almost all her time in the home. The late Leonaka would have celebrated her 22nd birthday on March 30, 2012.
Relatives said they searched high and low, and telephoned all the persons that knew her, but could get no information on Leonaka’s whereabouts.
Finally, in desperation, they decided to file a missing-person report at the nearest police station. According to one sister, “We went searching for her whole day yesterday; I went and make a report at the station that she missing, and I even put it on FaceBook that she missing.”
Then, at approximately 06:00hrs yesterday morning, they received word that a body was discovered in a roadside trench in Nismes Village, and they rushed there in great fear and apprehension.
Upon arrival there, Leonaka’s sister Otto said she instantly recognized Leonaka by a silver ring with a stone she wears on her left index finger.
Otto said Leonaka had left the home with tights under her dress and with an umbrella, but when she saw her body lying in the shallow trench with her hands bound with a rope, Leonaka’s legs were spread wide open, and her panties were dragged to one side, revealing her privates.
According to Otto, the deceased bore several bruises on her neck and face, which was swollen beyond recognition.
Relatives are of the view that Leonaka was killed mere hours before the body was found since there was blood coming from her nose, and rigor mortis hasd not yet set in.
As one observed: “This trench isn’t deep, so she can’t have drowned. And from how it look, she had on a tights and a dress… when we found her, she didn’t had on the tights. It like if she was raped; it look like if she neck break; and it look like if she was killed last night, because when we found her in the trench, there the blood was still running out of her nose… and froth was coming out of her mouth. If she had died before, her body would have been stiff; but it had some amount of life when they brought her out on the stretcher.”
Another said that for all she knew, Leonaka could have been murdered right in front of their home, or someone could have killed her elsewhere and placed her body where it was found. “I am not sure if the person, realizing that we looking for her, killed her and come throw the body here fore-day morning.”
Meanwhile, the police rank whose home Leonaka had allegedly visited has been taken into custody for questioning, as is the boyfriend with whom she had been sharing a six-year relationship.
Apparently taken aback by the detention of the boyfriend, relatives said he had recently removed from the home because of a family feud, and was staying with relatives in Georgetown. Moreover, he was at his work site when the girl went missing.
Otto told this newspaper that Leonaka had complained that the policeman she had been dating had been continually pestering her for sex, and had sometimes been almost physical when she refused his advances.
At the La Grange Police Station, frequent fiery clashes erupted between relatives of the deceased and police ranks, and it was observed that at least one male police rank was practically treating the gathering like animals.
Investigations into this tragedy continue.