THE police in ‘C’ Division has encountered a snag in relation to their investigations into the murder of 15-year-old schoolgirl, Alicia Ali, whose nude and battered body was found on the seawall in the vicinity of the University of Guyana (UG) Access Road on March 25, 2015 and they are appealing to members of the public to come forward and volunteer information which may aid in their probe.A senior member of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) told this publication yesterday that they are seeking the assistance of the general public to solve this crime and bring the perpetrator (s) to justice.
Since the discovery of the body, sleuths have questioned more than 10 persons, including the teen’s mother, stepfather, a previous stepdad, and two boyfriends, among others.
They are, however, hunting for a person of interest for questioning.
On March 25 the body was spotted by passersby and the police were summoned but by then a large crowd had gathered to get a glimpse of the corpse.
Ali resided with her mother at Sixth Street, Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara, on the night before she failed to return home after going to a nearby shop to make a purchase for her mother on the evening of Tuesday, March 24. A search was then launched for her.
Speculation was rife following the discovery of the body after a letter was found in the teen’s room indicating that the schoolgirl probably took her own life, but after the autopsy the police deemed the death a homicide.
The teen’s clothes that she was wearing at the time of her murder and her cell phone are yet to be found. It is believed that she was killed elsewhere and her body stripped and dumped at the seawall location during the wee hours of the morning of Wednesday, March 25, 2015.

An autopsy revealed that Ali was strangled but died of asphyxia due to drowning, compounded by a compression injury to the neck.

By Michel Outridge