Pool where Adriana Younge’s body was found was not checked properly; review of police investigation shows no foul play- Canadian investigator

Last Updated on Saturday, 31 May 2025, 11:09 by Writer

Retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) homicide investigator, Leonard McCoshen said the pool at the Double Day Hotel at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, where Adriana Younge’s body was seen the day after, needed to be checked properly, but he ruled out foul play based on investigations done by the Guyana Police Force (GPF).

“If a thorough search had been done of the pool by properly trained and properly equipped people at the onset, “this investigation would have very likely not garnered the international attention and political pressure that it finds itself in today,” he was quoted as saying in his investigative report.

No mention was made of the police force’s bungling by falsely claiming that the girl had been seen in video surveillance footage leaving in an identifiable car.

The 11-year-old girl’s body was seen in the pool on April 24, 2025 almost 24 hours after her grandmother last saw her there during a family outing.

Two autopsies conducted by four foreign pathologists concluded that the girl died by drowning.

The last one was conducted in the United States by Chief Medical Examiner of Gwinnett County, Georgia, Dr Carol Terry who also found no trauma.

The GPF said in a media statement on Friday that after Mr McCoshen reviewed over 400 pages of documents and a quantity of digital forensic evidence, in various formats, he concluded there was no foul play.

“After spending a considerable amount of time reviewing all of the evidence and information that has been provided to me, it is my belief that there is no evidence of foul play in this matter by persons named or unnamed in the investigational information that I was provided,” he said.

Mr McCoshen, according to the Police Force, said his belief was based on:

• The video evidence from Lot 7 Tuschen Public Road that no person(s), including Adrianna Younge, were seen leaving, under other than normal circumstances from the area of the Double Day Hotel from the time she arrived until the time that she was noticed to be missing.
• None of the persons present at the Double Day Hotel saw or recorded in any format, any evidence that Adrianna Younge either left or was taken from the pool area.
• There was no evidence of foul play, by any persons, named or unnamed found during any of the medical procedures that were done on the body of Adrianna Younge. This included but was not limited to the physical examination of her body by several doctors, an extensive battery of X-rays and a CT scan.
• There was no evidence of foul play, by any persons, named or unnamed at any time during the course of this investigation. There is concrete video evidence and no evidence by any people who were interviewed that Bhojnarine Bhola was at the Double Day Hotel during the time that Adrianna Younge was known to be there and be alive on April 23, 2025.

Mr McCoshen reportedly said that in all his service in the RCMP he had never seen that level of medical or pathological effort done on any deceased persons. “Having three very highly qualified and experienced pathologists conduct an examination is something that I have never seen or heard of before in the RCMP and since, I had not ever seen this level of medical or pathological effort done on any deceased persons,” he said.

Those who conducted the first autopsy in Guyana were Dr Glenn A. Rudner, a forensic and anatomic pathologist affiliated with Mount Sinai Hospital and the Icahn School of Medicine in New York City; Trinidad and Tobago-born Chief Medical Examiner of the U.S. State of Delaware, Dr Gary L. Collins and Dr Shubhakar Karra Paul, an international forensic pathologist based at the Forensic Sciences Centre under the Office of the Attorney General in Barbados.

Praising the “quality of police work done by the Guyana Police Force”, Mr McCoshen said it was apparent to him that members who investigated that incident took the utmost time and considerable effort to speak to any and all persons that had any information to provide, relative to the incident.” “Overall, it is my opinion that the members of the Guyana Police Force that conducted this investigation, after the initial response, did an exemplary job and should be commended for their effort and diligence under very trying circumstances. They spoke to all of the witnesses who would cooperate with them and gathered all of the relevant information that was possible. They also made extensive efforts to speak with those witnesses who were not forthcoming,” he was quoted as saying by the GPF.

McCoshen said it was also apparent that as new investigative information was gathered, further clarifying statements were obtained from witnesses or other people to ensure the accuracy and validity of the investigative file.

Twenty of Mr. McCoshen’s 30 years of experience as an RCMP investigator saw him attached to the Serious Crimes Branch in the Major Crimes Unit, with the mandate to investigate serious, complex and sensitive matters, mainly homicides and deaths where foul play was suspected.