Murdered girl in Hope Canal…Cops want to question ‘Satan’

Aug 17, 2016 News

Police are asking for an Ann’s Grove, East Coast Demerara man known as ‘Satan’ to turn himself

Murdered: Malika Hamilton

in for questioning in connection with the murder of 14-year-old Malika Hamilton, the 14-year-old girl whose body was found in the Hope Canal two Tuesdays ago.
A police official made the appeal yesterday after ‘Satan’ appeared on a local television newscast to proclaim his innocence.
Despite searching his residence and other areas, police have been unable to locate the villager since the teen’s body was found.
‘We are asking him to turn himself in. We would like to question him,” the official told Kaieteur News.
“By virtue of him going to the media, let him come in to the police, if he knows definitely he in no way contributed to her death. He was seen in her company prior to her death. Let him come in and talk to us.”
In a brief interview posted on social media ‘Satan’ stated: “Me ain kill nobody. This girl hay suh…cross the canal in the same boat with us, and then she lef and say she going by she grandmother and I never see she back, and…she mother asking me if I see she daughter Malika, and I say that she cross over (the canal) and say she going by she grandmother, and I ain see she back.”
The suspect also said that he was in hiding because of “the amount of allegation they got at the station.” Kaieteur News understands that charges against ‘Satan,’ include wounding and break and enter.
Yesterday, angry relatives of the slain teen also queried why the villager has not submitted himself for questioning, if he claims to be innocent.
“If he did not do it, why he running?” asked the dead teen’s mother, Atisha Cambridge.
And the victim’s grandmother, Dorrel Cambridge, who saw the television footage, said that it was clear that someone was providing the suspect with food and shelter.
“His hair plait over and he got on clean clothes, and he very tidy. We want justice and we have to get justice.”
Malika Hamilton’s body was found in the Hope Canal last week Tuesday, a day after she had left her mother’s home.
Police had at first concluded that she had drowned while swimming.
But while a post mortem examination showed that death was from asphyxiation due to drowning, it also revealed injuries to the throat, which indicated that someone had choked the teen.
The teen’s mother said that she was at work last week Monday when her daughter contacted her by phone and said she was going to a cousin’s home to ‘do her hair’. It appears that instead, the teen ended up near the “big bridge,” with a boy, and the man known as ‘Satan’.
Her grandmother alleged that the man had claimed that he was teaching Hamilton to swim.
The boy who had accompanied Hamilton and ‘Satan’ reportedly told police that the trio crossed a bridge at “Star-apple tree” area, where villagers go to catch birds. They then went to the backdam.
On arriving there, ‘Satan’ allegedly told the boy to stay there, since he was taking Hamilton to pick mangoes. He said Hamilton and ‘Satan’ never returned.
The child claimed that when it became dark, he asked someone to take him over the bridge and he went home.
Kaieteur News was told that ‘Satan’ went to the family’s home the next day after learning that Hamilton’s family was searching for her. He reportedly said: “Wait, that girl ain’t come home?”
According to the slain girl’s mother, ‘Satan’ claimed that after taking Hamilton by the ‘big bridge’ to swim, she had told him that she was going to her grandmother’s home. He also reportedly said that he had lent the girl his slippers.
Police also took a statement from a villager, who said he took Hamilton, ‘Satan’ and the boy by boat to an area where villagers hunt for birds. It was this same villager who spotted Hamilton’s body in the canal the following day and alerted the police.