A family of Harlem, West Coast Demerara (WCD) is mourning the death of their youngest member after her lifeless body was pulled out of the canal at the back of their home.
The toddler, 18-month-old Aleena Mohamed was discovered around 18:30h on Monday after she went missing a few hours before.
The Police said that they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death. Investigations have so far revealed that Mohamed’s mother, 23-year-old Kaishrie Ramchand was about to give her a bath but left her and went to retrieve a towel from the upper flat of their home.
It is suspected that the toddler walked to the back of the yard where the family rears sheep and ducks and made her way to the canal through a gate that was left opened.
Ramchand told the Police that she forgot the gates at the back were opened prior to leaving the child.
When Guyana Times International visited the family’s Harlem, WCD home, both parents were at the Police station assisting with the investigations. However, Aleena’s paternal grandfather, Abdool Mohamed, related that he was in the yard doing some mason work prior to the incident.
“About 4:30 (16:30h) time, she was with me at the back and she mommy tell she come out ah the sand and she gone to bathe right away. She mother left to go collect the towel upstairs and by the time she come down we looking for the girl and we ain’t see she at the bathroom because I went to bathe too. We search the whole yard and we didn’t find she and then I suspect and say at the back there the gate was open and go out the back there,” the grieving man related.
It was then the family decided to call Aleena’s father, Shoaib, who was at work at the time. The man rushed home and joined neighbours as they formed a search party. The initial search came up empty-handed.
The futile search led the family to the Windsor Forest pump station, which is a few villages away. They requested that the pump attendant to turn the pumps off so that they could continue their search. The attendant obliged and they returned to the canal at the back of their home.
“The pump them was on because the sea defence water was running over so they pump it back out. So when them turn off the water and it chock up then we form a bigger search party and went back. The water like it spin she round and we find she just by the grass corner and we pick she up and rush she to the (West Demerara Regional) Hospital. Them doctors do them thing and so and then they pronounced she dead,” the man said while fighting to hold back tears.
She leaves to mourn her parents and two other siblings.
