47 women and girls murdered in 2023

-17 more than in 2022

By Michael Jordan

Girls aged between eleven and 15 made up the highest number of females who were murdered last year.

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The Guyana Police Force statistics, provided by Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum on request to BIG Smith News Watch, revealed that 47 women and girls were slain in 2023.

That amounts to almost four murders of women in every month

The 20 girls are the victims of the horrific May, 2023 inferno at the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory.

The fire was allegedly set by a 15-year-old female student, who has since been charged with murder.

The police statistics also revealed that six women, aged between 20 and 29; five women, each aged between 30 and 39, and 40 and 49; four aged between 16 and 19; three between 50 and 59; two aged 80 and over; one each between ages 60 and 69, and five and ten, were last year’s homicide victims.

 Many of those slain were killed by their spouses or partners.

In January, the body of Nazaleen Mohammed, a 47-year-old housewife of Belfield Squatting Area, East Coast Demerara, was found in a canal at Hope Lowlands, East Coast Demerara. The body bore wounds to the stomach.

Deonarine Sawh, called ‘Boyzie’, of Plantation Hope, ECD, was arrested and charged with the woman’s murder.

In March, Aneeza Ishmael, 26, was allegedly stabbed to death by her common-law husband,  Ricardo Kattow, who was subsequently charged with murder.

A month later, Lisa George, a 31-year-old housewife of Lot 604 ‘C’ Field Sophia, Greater Georgetown died after being stabbed some 22 times, allegedly by her  reputed husband, Meshack Douglas, a 23-year-old security guard of Charlestown, Georgetown, who was arrested at the scene.

In May, the mutilated body of Kim Halley, a 46-year-old of Lamaha Park, Georgetown, was found in a room at the Alpha Hotel at Lot 2 Public Road Ogle, East Coast Demerara.

Her husband, Junior Halley, a 50-year-old businessman, was arrested and charged.

In September, Estephanie Garcias, a 28-year-old  Venezuelan woman, was found  murdered in her shop at Kaikan in Region.

Jairo Medina Hernandes, a Venezuelan miner, was charged with her murder.

Also in September,  29-year-old Shannen Obermulla-Mohamed of Parika, East Bank Essequibo was beaten to death, allegedly by  a man of unsound mind, who then burnt and buried her remains.

In November, 32-year-old Romona Lall, of Kilcoy Chesney, Corentyne, Berbice, was found dead in the Sunset Hotel in Kitty with stab wounds about her body.

In December, Lall’s husband, Sadesh Appadu, who was wanted for questioning, committed suicide by ingesting a poisonous substance.