SCREAMS of “Malika!” penetrated the otherwise still atmosphere as 14-year-old Malika Hamilton, who was brutally murdered at Hope, East Coast Demerara last week, was laid to rest Sunday at the Ann’s Grove cemetery.

Persons turned out in their numbers at Jerrick’s Funeral Home at Paradise, East Coast Demerara to view the body of the Hope Secondary School student who died of “asphyxiation,” a condition of severely deficient supply of oxygen to the body as a result of abnormal breathing – an example of asphyxia is choking.

Report on the autopsy conducted by Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh also revealed that before Hamilton was thrown into the Hope Canal while she was still alive, she had suffered “blunt trauma to head” and “compression injury to neck.”

The Miss African Calabash 2014 queen had left her Lot 11 Two Friends Village home on Monday, but never returned. Her body surfaced at the Hope Canal and was spotted by a ranger who was at the time transporting workers on the infrastructural project. Persons from all walks of life flooded the community of Ann’s Grove/Two Friends yesterday, many decked in black and red.

Dressed in a pink dress and crowned, her face was swollen beyond recognition, and as mourners took a first look at the Jerrick’s Funeral Home, screams erupted. While the parlour was packed to capacity, a number of vehicles lined the roadways when the Guyana Chronicle stopped yesterday.

Distraught relatives of the dead teenager are calling for swift justice even as police received information that she was last seen in the company of a man who lives at Two Friends Village, East Coast Demerara.

Police said since the dead teenager’s body bore no marks of violence, it had initially treated the case as a drowning, but began its murder investigations after the autopsy on Friday revealed that she was brutally murdered. The Guyana Chronicle received reports from a reliable source that Hamilton was last seen in the company of three men by a ranger who transported them in his boat from Douch Four to Hope, across the canal.

They parted company, with the other two males leaving the teenage girl in the company of the adult suspect. The police said they received information that the man was hiding under the bridge across the Hope canal, but upon checking they saw only evidence that someone had indeed been there. An old mattress, freshly used food boxes and a black bag were left under the bridge.