…14-year-old brutally strangled and dumped alive in canal

MAGISTRATE Peter Hugh, presiding at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, discharged Alvin Reid, called ‘Satan,’ for the murder of 14-year-old Malika Hamilton, whose body was found floating in the Hope Canal, East Coast Demerara in August, 2016.

Reid of Ann’s Grove, (ECD), was discharged after the magistrate ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case. Reid was on remand for allegedly killing Hamilton.

According to reports, the deceased and the accused were known to each other and on August 8, 2016, they went to swim at Hope Canal and the teenager was not seen until her body was discovered the following day in the canal.

A post-mortem revealed that the teen died of asphyxiation due to drowning. An investigation was launched and the accused was arrested and charged with murder.
Reid was considered the prime suspect in the death of the Ann’s Grove girl. Government Pathologist Dr Nehal Singh, conducted an autopsy on the body of Hamilton and found that she had been brutally bludgeoned to her head, strangled and dumped alive in the canal. The second-year Hope Secondary School student died of ‘asphyxiation’, a condition of severe deficiency in the supply of oxygen to the body as a result of abnormal breathing. An example of asphyxia is choking.

The ‘Miss African Calabash 2014’ beauty queen had left her home at Two Friends Village, Ann’s Grove, ECD, but had never returned. Her body was fished out of the canal the following day, when it was spotted by the canal’s ranger.