‘Not so fast, Mr. President’ 

May 01, 2025 News

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–AFC leader, others say premature for President to rule out ‘forced drowning’ in Adriana’s death,

…cite absence of toxicology report

Kaieteur News- Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Nigel Hughes has said that the declaration made by President Irfaan Ali that 11-year-old Adriana Younge did not die from forcible drowning is “completely premature” in the absence of a toxicology report.

The AFC leader made these remarks while speaking at joint opposition press conference which was held outside the Double Day Hotel at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo on Wednesday. When asked by the media about the President’s statements on Adriana’s post-mortem report, Hughes said, “Let me start off by saying the President, as far as I know, is not a pathologist, neither is he a forensic expert, nor is he a qualified investigator. The only thing we know for certain, based on the report that came from Darren Wade (attorney-at-law) is that the cause of death was drowning. The finding of drowning does not rule out it being a homicide, which is an unlawful killing.”

Hughes added that one of the obvious issues that arises as a result of drowning as a cause of death is where the drowning took place. He noted that the only way to begin to narrow the locations for drowning would be a result of the toxicology reports. “And just to give you an obvious example, if the water in the pool has chlorine, and any water that was found in her lungs or elsewhere in her body is not consistent with chlorine. It reduces significantly the possibility that she drowned in the pool. So I think it’s completely premature in the absence of a toxicology report,” he explained.

The post-mortem examination was conducted on the body of Younge on Monday at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s mortuary by three highly trained pathologists. Regarding the medical report from the pathologists, Hughes pointed out that it is unfortunate that the President would make an expert’s call that rules out forcible drowning when the nation has not had the benefit of seeing the professional report of any of the pathologists. “In relation to the findings we have not seen a single report from any pathologist not one, we are getting reports from people who said they spoke to them and as far as I know the President has not spoken to them and therefore where he sits to rule out forced drowning until and unless that is specifically set out in the pathologists’ report we do not seek to rely on it and unfortunately given his position now, we unfortunately do not accept it,” Hughes said at the press conference.

Kaieteur News had reported that following the PME, President Ali, in a press briefing on Monday evening, informed the nation that the autopsy was conducted to identify signs of trauma or injuries to the body, detect signs of sexual violence and collect appropriate forensic samples to determine the cause of death. He said, “Due to the state of the decomposition of Miss Younge’s body, the pathologists were unable to provide an exact time of death.” Moreover, Ali stated, “The relatives were also informed that the pathologists ruled out theories of forcible drowning or any other means of killing followed by disposal of the body in water.”

Not so

However, the child’s family and their lawyer, Darren Wade, said there was no such discussion about the ruling out of forcible downing. Another official who was briefed by the pathologists following the autopsy also said there was no such discussion. Adriana’s aunt, Amika Lewis, who was briefed by the pathology team at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) following the PME, made it clear that murder was not ruled out by the three specialists.

In an interview with Kaieteur News on Tuesday, she explained, “The three pathologists said that my niece died from drowning. Of course, the pathologists can only tell you the cause, they cannot say where she drowned.” The woman added, “They did not rule out that she was murdered. They explained that to us, that they are not going to rule out that she was murdered…we the citizens, we the family, we the people who were there, know for a fact she did not drown in the pool.”

To this end, Lewis discounted remarks shared by President Irfaan Ali that there was no ‘forceful drowning’ of her niece. She said, “I don’t know if it was Mr. Ali or Mr. Jagdeo who had a conference and said something that the pathologists said that she wasn’t forcefully (drown). The pathologist did not say that. They did not say that. They said other things: she didn’t have any broken bones; she was not raped. They did not say that she was not murdered. They did not say that she drowned in the pool, and they explained that they couldn’t tell us that. They would need a toxicology report and some other stuff done.”

Dr. Caleb Mc Mcloggan, a Guyanese medical professional, who observed Adriana’s autopsy in a live statement on Monday evening said the manner in which the 11-year-old died is still to be investigated. According to him, “We have the cause, now we have to determine the manner in which she succumbed. We know that it was due to drowning, now we got to know how she drowned. We got to wait on the toxicology report also.”

He said a laboratory was identified to send body fluids taken from the child’s body to be tested. These will be thoroughly examined and tested to assess whether she was injected with a tranquilizer that may have been the reason for no marks of violence of the body.

Younge was reported missing on April 23 during an outing with family members at the Double Day International Hotel and Bar, Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo. She was discovered dead in the hotel pool the next day. It should be noted that after the child was discovered missing, an alarm was raised and checks were made around the hotel premises, though not thorough. The family is, however, certain that the pool area was searched several times by multiple individuals in hopes of finding the child.

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