Almost a year later…Investigation into Alicia McPherson’s death appears to be at a standstill

Feb 22, 2016 News

It is almost a year since 18-year-old Alicia McPherson was reportedly stabbed to death by her lover and the investigation into her death appears to be grounded.
On April 19, last McPherson was lured away from her friends at a dance in Sophia and allegedly stabbed 41 times by Shivanand Roopnarine, the man she had been dating for almost two years.
She died while receiving treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
To date, the suspect has managed to stay one step ahead of the law.
Kaieteur News was told that the 21-year-old man disappeared from his Grove, East Bank Demerara (EBD) home after murdering the young woman. There are reports of him altering his appearance to avoid detection.
Yesterday, the dead woman’s mother, Denise McPherson, in tears said that it seems as if the police are not doing anything to apprehend her daughter’s killer.
The older McPherson lamented that since her daughter was murdered, she is having sleepless nights. “It is terrifying to look at her bed every night and not see her there. I miss her every day.”

Dead: Alicia McPherson

Alleged killer: Shivanand Roopnarine

According to the devastated mother, to see your eldest child covered in blood as she lay on a hospital bed connected to a set of wires to keep her alive- is something no mother wants to witness.
“My daughter is gone. She wouldn’t be there to advise her three siblings when they get older. She was such a quiet child, I never had problems with her and she was always helpful at home,” the woman cried.
She said just days before her daughter was killed, she was at home writing applications having completed school.
Recalling what transpired that night, the woman said that her daughter left home to go to a dance in the same village with her next door neighbour.
“She told me that she going to the dance with her boyfriend and I said okay. She was going to leave with some friends and meet him there but the friends weren’t finished so she ended up going with the neighbour,” the woman recalled.
A couple hours later, she received the most terrifying telephone call in her life- her daughter was stabbed multiple times by her boyfriend.
While the older McPherson is still not clear as to what caused Shivanand Roopnarine to stab her daughter, she suggested that the young man might have gotten upset after seeing the 18-year-old entering the dance with another man.
“He (the male neighbour) is like family. She only went to the dance with he and then she went to her boyfriend when she reached. I still don’t know if that is the reason why he killed her,” the woman said.
According to McPherson, it only after her daughter was killed that she was informed that the young woman was usually physically abused by her 21-year-old boyfriend.
The day after Alicia McPherson was killed, this newspaper made contact with the alleged killer and he denied murdering his girlfriend.
“I lost the woman I love and am confused. People calling me and telling me I do it and I ain’t know what to do. Everybody just calling me and telling me a set of stupidness,” he told the reporter.
The dead girl’s mother is pleading with the Guyana Police Force to do their best and apprehend her daughter’s killer before he kills someone else.