Eleven Year-Old Adriana Younge Finally Laid to Rest

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Nearly two months after her body was found floating in the pool of a hotel in the capital, 11-year-old Adriana Younge was buried on Sunday, leaving behind a controversy surrounding the true cause of her death.

Family and friends pay final respects as 11-year-old Adriana Younge laid to rest on Sunday.The service was held Sandy’s Funeral Home on the West Coast of Demerara (WCD) and continued at the Vergenoegen tarmac, where hundreds gathered. Mourners were dressed in red and lined the streets and service grounds to pay their final respects.

The body of Adriana dressed in a pink gown with a large bow at the front and a silver crown on her head, was placed in a small pink casket,.

The Grade Six pupil of Parika Salem Primary School was laid to rest at the Vergenoegen Cemetery and the ceremony proceeded peacefully, in keeping with the family’s request for a dignified farewell.

Adriana’s body was found in the swimming pool of the Double Day Hotel on April 24. Her death sparked national outrage, with many questioning the circumstances.

In May, the Guyana government imposed an overnight curfew following violent clashes between police and protesters who accused authorities of mishandling the investigation into Adrian’s death.

The clashes occurred outside the capital’s main hospital as three pathologists, including one flown in from the United States, performed an autopsy. They later determined that she died from drowning.

But her family and friends, without giving evidence, said she was abducted at the hotel and sacrificed as a religious ritual. They have blamed resort employees for her death and accused police of prohibiting relatives and search parties from entering the resort, where her body was found in a pool.

Schools, universities and a majority of businesses in the capital, Georgetown, closed and the police fired tear gas and rubber bullets. President Irfaan Ali said that the government was doing everything to ensure justice for the family.

At the end of May, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) officially ruled that the death was due to   drowning, with no signs of foul play and that the position follows the final postmortem report submitted earlier by the three internationally renowned pathologists.

The GPF said that a comprehensive postmortem examination—including toxicology and DNA testing—was carried out, and that the findings were: no signs of acute injury or trauma present; the toxicology results showed ethanol levels consistent with postmortem decomposition; and that sexual assault kit and DNA analysis for potential suspects were negative.

In addition, the GPF said the findings indicated that the skin and airway changes were in line with prolonged submersion and drowning, and that there was no evidence of restraint, struggle, removal, and return of the body.

Adriana’s family had arranged for an autopsy to be conducted in the United States by Dr Carol Terry, the Chief Medical Examiner for Gwinnett County, Georgia, reviewed the case.

Her report confirmed there was no evidence of trauma or sexual assault and noted that Adriana’s lungs showed signs consistent with drowning.

During the funeral service, relatives and friends said that Adriana will be remembered as a joyful, kind-hearted child who loved to dance and play with her cousins.