The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has officially advised that an inquest be conducted into the cause of, and circumstances connected with, the death of 11-year-old Adriana Younge. The death occurred between April 23 and 24, 2025, at the Double Day Hotel in Tuschen. The Guyana Police Force confirmed they have received the advice and are taking the necessary steps in keeping with the legal process, while stating they remain committed to upholding standards of professionalism, accountability, and integrity.
Amecia Simon, the mother of the deceased child, expressed a mix of exhaustion and resolve following the announcement. Speaking to the Guyana Standard, she said, “I believe and trust in God but after a year to see this now when every clue to hold persons accountable for everything that happened to my child gone. God and Time one day they all are going to be exposed.”
The investigation has faced heavy scrutiny regarding the supervision of the child on the day she disappeared. When asked whether the grandmother, Carol Xavier, who took the children to the hotel, was questioned by police, Simon remained critical of the family dynamics and the official narrative. She stated, “I should think so but her stories have 40 sides and imagine it’s going to be a year since she called me and ask to take my kids out without not one day showing a little remorse and have the nerve to be talking trash about me.”
Younge, a Grade Six pupil at Parika Salem Primary School, was laid to rest on June 22, 2025. Her funeral was marked by a massive display of collective grief, as hundreds of mourners wearing red shirts gathered at the Vergenoegen tarmac to demand justice. Family members recalled the child as a beacon of love and intellectual promise who had recently sat the National Grade Six Assessment with dreams of attending Queen’s College.
The child’s aunt, Amika Lewis, delivered a heartbreaking eulogy describing Adriana as a joyful and optimistic visionary. She noted that on the morning of April 23, Adriana woke up full of life, excited to spend the day with her paternal grandmother and other relatives. Tragically, she went missing in the presence of numerous adults and was found the following day, her vibrant spirit extinguished in a way no one could have imagined.
The discovery of the body in the hotel pool sparked national outrage and violent unrest, as citizens questioned how the child could have gone unnoticed during initial searches. In the days following the tragedy, the hotel and the owner’s residence were set on fire, shops were looted, and motorbike gangs terrorized parts of the city, leading to dozens of arrests and terrorism charges.
Two separate autopsies, one conducted by international pathologists and a second performed in Georgia, United States, both ruled that Adriana died by drowning with no signs of physical or sexual trauma. Despite these findings, the lack of a clear explanation for the timeline of events has deepened public concern and the family’s distress. The newly ordered inquest aims to provide the clarity that has remained elusive for over a year.
