Slowe questions credibility of police report on Adriana’s death

May 29, 2025 News

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…calls it “biggest cover-up” in Guyana’s history

Kaieteur News- Former Assistant Commissioner of Police Paul Slowe has sharply criticised the credibility of the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) final autopsy report on the death of 11-year-old Adriana Younge, calling it “the biggest cover-up in the recent history of the Guyana Police Force.”

Speaking alongside retired Assistant Commissioner Clinton Conway on the programme Speaking Out: Exposing Corruption and Incompetence, Slowe expressed deep concern about the accuracy, timing, and transparency of the police’s official statement released Wednesday, which declared Adriana’s death a case of drowning with no signs of foul play. “I, Paul Esman Slowe, am saying that this is the biggest cover-up in the recent history of the Guyana Police Force—or in Guyana, or anywhere in the Commonwealth Caribbean that we know of. This is a cover-up from the get-go,” Slowe stated.

Police report

The police statement claims that Adriana’s death was officially ruled as drowning by three international pathologists: Dr. Shubhakar Karra Paul (Barbados), Dr. Gary Collins (Delaware, USA), and Dr. Glenn Rudner (Mount Sinai Hospital, USA). According to the GPF: “The certified findings from the autopsy confirmed that her death was consistent with drowning, and no evidence of trauma, assault, or any other criminal activity was found.”

The report further referenced a prior investigation conducted by retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer Leonard McCoshan, which concluded that there was “no evidence of foul play by persons named or unnamed during the investigation.”

However, Slowe and Conway strongly disagreed with the conclusions and timing of the report. According to Slowe, key pieces of evidence suggest that Adriana did not drown in the pool where her body was found. “Let’s walk through the evidence. This girl turned up with her grandmother at the Double Day pool on the 23rd of April. Her grandmother said she gave her money to buy an armband for the pool. When her body was fished out on the morning of the 24th, the left hand still had the armband on—it’s evidence that the grandmother was accurate,” Slowe explained.

He questioned how Adriana could have drowned in a pool surrounded by children and adults without anyone noticing. “You want to tell me this child drowned in this pool with people around, and no one raised an alarm? No adults saw her in trouble? No children called for help? That’s not how drowning works. People flail, people scream,” he argued.  Slowe also challenged the police claim that Adriana’s body surfaced due to natural decomposition processes:

“They say natural decomposition caused her to float, common in tropical climates. I can’t imagine that professional people wrote this. The experts themselves say that a drowned body sinks and takes about three days to float. Adriana’s body was reportedly discovered the next morning, in a semi-vertical position. That’s not consistent with what we know about drowning.”

Timeline and Time of Death

Both Slowe and Conway emphasised that the most crucial unanswered question remains Adriana’s time of death. “That girl was not in the pool on the morning of the 24th during all the checks—including one by ‘Critic’—and then she suddenly appears. Where did she come from? That’s why I say it’s murder,” Slowe declared. “It’s clear from the evidence we are all seeing that she did not drown in that pool.”

“In my training and in my view, one of the most crucial parts of this investigation was the time of death,” he added. “Even the pathologists they’re referencing couldn’t determine the time of death due to the state of decomposition.” Conway added a comparison from a recent drowning incident: “We had a classic example in Linden where a man drowned, and his body was at the bottom of the pool—we could see it. That wasn’t the case with Adriana.”

Doubts over DNA and sexual assault findings

Slowe also questioned the thoroughness of the DNA testing. “They said the sexual assault kit and DNA analysis for potential suspects were negative. What potential suspects? From the report, we learned they only took a DNA sample from the owner of the hotel. How can you rule out other suspects if you didn’t test anyone else?”

Questioning the Canadian investigator’s conclusion

Lastly, Slowe criticised the early conclusion made by McCoshan “They are telling us they just got the final report on the 27th, yet McCoshan submitted his before that and somehow concluded there was no foul play? How did he come to that conclusion without the autopsy report?”

Adriana was last seen alive by her grandmother at around 13:01 hrs on April 23, 2025, at the Double Day International Hotel pool during a family outing. Her body was found in the pool nearly 20 hours later, under conditions her family insists do not align with a drowning. The family has since sent her body to the U.S. for a second autopsy, with hopes of uncovering the truth behind her mysterious death.

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