The body of 20-year-old Shonette Dover, who was missing for more than three weeks, was unearthed in a sitting position in a shallow grave when police officers found the place where she was buried.
According to Police Commander, Superintendent Hugh Winter, officers in Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara- Berbice) received a missing person’s report on April 5, two days after Dover’s family and friends realised that she had gone missing.
During an interview on Friday, after Dover’s body was unearthed, the Superintendent noted that officers received reports that the woman was sighted in Region Six (East Berbice- Corentyne) on two occasions and then in Mabura, Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni). Winter contended that the police search party may have been deliberately misled.
On Thursday afternoon, however, he said that the police force received credible information from the 15-year-old sister of the victim that the body was buried in Dover’s boyfriend’s backyard in Canvas City, Wismar, Linden. This was where Dover lived with Shaquawn Alleyne, her fiancé, and not her boyfriend as police originally said.
Acting on this information, Winter said that several ranks, including those from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), went there. There, the officers dug the area.
“The body was unearthed in a sitting position, the head up and the feet to the north,” Winter said.
Upon retrieving the body, it was taken to the Linden Hospital where Dover was pronounced dead. Subsequently, it was taken to the Pensioners Mortuary awaiting an autopsy.
Importantly, the suspected killer, Alleyne, was not at home, but Winter said that the police were searching for him.
Police reports from earlier on Friday indicated that Dover’s 15-year-old sister confessed to the police that she saw when Alleyne shot and killed her sister on the night of April 3 and then later buried her in the backyard of his house at Canvas City, in the presence of his father.
In the days and weeks following the young woman’s disappearance and now revealed death, Alleyne was fervently searching for her and pleading for her return. But all this time, Alleyne had allegedly already killed her and buried her.
The 15-year-old child has been aiding investigations while the suspect’s father is in police custody.
