By Svetlana Marshall

On the anniversary of the tragic death of 11-year-old Adriana Younge, her mother is still crying out for the justice she believes her daughter deserves.

Reflecting on her daughter’s death at the Double Day hotel last year, Adriana’s mother, Amecia Simon, said all she longs for now is justice.

“Adriana deserves justice. She deserves justice. The worst has already happened but at this point she deserves justice. Her parents deserve justice, her siblings deserve justice,” Simon told News Source in an exclusive interview, as observed Adriana’s first death anniversary.

Adriana went missing while visiting the Double Day Hotel with her grandmother and other relatives on April 23, 2025. A day later, on April 24, her lifeless body was discovered floating in the hotel’s pool – a pool which had been searched multiple times prior to the discovery.

A post mortem examination conducted on her remains by three international pathologists concluded that Adriana died by drowning, but Simon is maintaining that even if her daughter died by drowning, it was no accident, adding that at the time her daughter went missing, she was not in the pool.

“She wasn’t there. Because first off, a child went missing, a business still going on, there are persons in that pool up until 10pm, persons are in there partying, swimming still having a good time. She was not just a little child, she was taller than me, so, even if she was there, somebody would have jammed her, you would have seen her because you could have literally stand from the top there and see to the bottom of that pool, so it was impossible. Who had her? Who called her? And the part, who called her, it can’t be no strange person, because she is not a child that could get called off or carried off by somebody who she doesn’t know,” Simon reasoned.

Earlier this month, the Guyana Police Force announced that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has advised that an inquest be conducted into the cause of and circumstances connected with the child’s death.

An inquest is a formal judicial inquiry conducted under the Coroners Act to determine the cause and circumstances of suspicious, unnatural, violent or sudden deaths.

Simon said although the family has not been contacted by the State, she welcomes the announcement and looks forward to a thorough and transparent process.

“Well I have a little hope in it because I am grateful to Dr. Todd, we have him, and I have a little hope in that and I do hope that we get some sort closure that we get persons who were involved, people get held accountable for what they did because it was not something like oh, she just drown. Even if she drowned, where did she drown? Who drowned her? Because you know, she wasn’t there, she wasn’t there. And then the police that came there, they didn’t come to help us, to look for a missing child. They came to protect a business going on, while a child was missing,” the grieving mother said. 

The grieving mother said she deserves closure, and justice for her daughter.

Adriana’s aunt, Amika Lewis, said the tragic passing of Adriana underscores the need for stronger law enforcement and legislative reforms to safeguard children.

“Secondly, we would like to see some form of reform as it relates to law enforcement in Guyana and as it relates to how missing children cases are being treated. There really needs to be legislative measures put in place where the police can understand when a child goes missing, it is not something that you take lightly, it is something that they act upon very swiftly,” Lewis said.

Adriana’s death led to several weeks of protests across the country. One year after the tragic death that gripped the nation, the unanswered questions remain.

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