As the nation continues to mourn the murder of 11-year-old Adrianna Younge, her father, Subrian Younge, has not only condemned the actions of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), but he has made it clear to those pushing talks of compensation, that no amount of money in the world could pay for the evil that has snatched his daughter from him.
The 32-year-old in a recent live spoke passionately about the heartbreak and anger he feels not just over his daughter’s death, but with the handling of the case by authorities, particularly those in Regional Division #3. He shared that leading up to the Easter holiday, he was under the weather, but still made time to spend with his family on Easter Day. The father said he could not bring himself to believe that this would be the last outing he would have with Adrianna.
Early Wednesday (April 23), Younge said he visited his mother who had planned a family outing. He said by the time he got back home, his children were already prepared and waiting for his mother or another relative to take them swimming.
By the time they left Younge recalled sitting in a chair and watching a show when he told his children goodbye. Younge said he later learnt of his daughter’s disappearance at the Double Day Hotel, in Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) following a call from his uncle. The father said he rushed to the hotel, arriving just after 2 pm, only to find that his daughter’s disappearance was being treated with little urgency by the police.
“You got 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, see how much hour you got before the sun go down,” he recalled saying to the police. “If my mother reach the police since 2 pm, why they ain’t lock down the place since then?,” he questioned during the Facebook live.
That evening (April 23), the Guyana Police Force issued a statement claiming that there is footage of Adrianna being abducted in front of the hotel. However, GPF later backtracked, issuing another statement declaring that the information about an abduction was inaccurate. This came after Adrianna’s body was found in the pool at the hotel.
Younge said despite the claims by the force that his daughter was abducted, he did go home. He spent the night outside of the hotel as he knew in his gut that his daughter was still there. The father said he questioned the actions of the police officers who on Wednesday night, barred his family from entering the hotel to search for his daughter.
Younge was keen to note that he always avoided the Double Day Hotel, because of the rumors about the place. He expressed disbelief that the hotel continued to operate despite a troubling past. “This place too small for too much body dying there. This place is not a big big place for when you sit down one end you can’t see the other end. You hear what I telling you? And every time something happen there, the cameras don’t work,” Younge said.
He made it clear, “If this place build back, watch if West Coast people, if Region Three people lowe this place hay so to build back… you deh pon stupidness. You know what should build here? The amount of persons who died here supposed to build in front here to show that it had to take 4 or 5 life before this here end, you hear what I tell you.”
He also pointed out that Adrianna’s belongings were still on-site and that action could have been taken much earlier by the police to bring in the dogs that afternoon or evening. The father believes that early action could have saved his daughter’s life or at least found her sooner. “They could have find me daughter in the building because she was in the building. Now when me daughter done dead, sniffing dogs coming,” he said.
The father also noted that there are talks of compensation. But to this he declared, “It have no money in this world that can pay for my daughter life. Not in Guyana, not nowhere. No money.”
Younge also reflected on the years of hardship he had endured to build a life and home for his family. He said from about the age of 15, he started labouring in backdams, standing on plantain trucks to head to Berbice, doing whatever it took to provide for himself.
He said, “I know about struggling, struggling ain’t nothing hard to me. This is not nothing I going through for five year or two year. I went through struggle since I know me self.”
But no struggle, he said, compares to the pain he must endure after losing his daughter.
Standing before the crowd during a recent protest, Younge called on God to rid the location of the Double Day hotel of evil. “I am here tonight to ask Father, because I know the evil that was done to my daughter in this place, and I cannot rest my daughter soul with evil thatch onto her. We are here tonight to pray out the evil so when we rest my daughter, we rest her peacefully. Father, that’s all I’m asking,” Younge said.
