By Shauna Jemmott

THE tragic death of a mother that broke a strong bond between her youngest daughter is now being seen as motive which triggered the suicidal death of a teenage girl in Berbice Saturday night.Marissa Singh, the 16-year-old student of JC Chandisingh Secondary School in Berbice, drank more than 80 blood pressure pills which belonged to her grandmother, at their Number 2 Village, Corentyne, home soon after entering her room and locking the door, a relative said.

But this was not her first attempt at taking her life. A relative of the dead teen told the Guyana Chronicle that sometime after the death of her mother, Anita Jodhan, Singh drank several of the pills but survived.

He explained that Singh was the last of Jodhan’s three children and the two were very close, with Singh accompanying her mother almost everywhere she went, while the two spent much quality time together.

He said two years ago, the mother received severe burns about her body in a fire that razed a house. After spending two weeks at the Georgetown Public Hospital, she succumbed to the injuries.

Since then, Singh became a changed individual, showing signs of depression.

While still grieving for her mom, she encountered conflicts with schoolmates at the New Amsterdam Multilateral School, and as a result was transferred last September to JC Chandsingh Secondary.

“Her mom was burnt alive in a fire and after then that’s when everything went haywire with them,” the relative told the Guyana Chronicle. He added, “Personally I feel she did it because of depression. They were very close. She used to be with her mother all the time. Their mother had third degree burns. She survived two weeks and then she died at the GPHC.”

He said Singh was “the prettiest girl around here, she is in Mandir and she dances and she goes up for the Diwali (motorcade) every year and she wins every year. She was so young, she had so many plans, and she took part in so many cultural events.”