The body of a 17-year-old girl was on Thursday morning fished out of the Berbice River.
Melissa Shamia, who was a mother of a two-year-old boy, was last seen on Wednesday evening in the company of a colleague in a small boat along the Berbice River.
When the boat returned to shore, the colleague claimed that the young lady had jumped overboard.
On Thursday morning, her body was discovered floating at DeVelt situated 50 miles up the Berbice River.
The body was found not far from where she is said to have been last seen.
Her father, Paul Soman, who identified the body on Thursday evening at the New Amsterdam Hospital Mortuary told this publication that it appeared as if his daughter’s face was burnt.
“It don’t look like fish eat her face, it is too black and the whole one side hand the flesh gone from it.”
Soman said they were able to identify the body from the clothing and the body structure.
The teenager reportedly left home three months ago to work at a bar.
It is not clear whether she was working at a bar at DeVelt or at the bar which is situated on the boat that her boyfriend operates.
The young lady had not made contact with her parents since she left home.
According to the teenager’s mother, Shondell Cobena, her daughter was living with her boyfriend at DeVelt.
The family believes a thorough investigation is needed.
“It don’t look like she drowned to me. I think is a murder,” he told this publication.
The body is currently at the Arokium Funeral Parlour awaiting an autopsy. [Andrew Carmichael]
