What kills Victoria Zayzay in Police cell?

A Justice Ministry sponsored autopsy performed on the body of Victoria Zayzay who was found helpless in a Police withholding cell before being pronounced dead on arrival at the Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town, Bushrod Island has refuted Police account that she committed suicide by hanging in the cell.

Victoria Zayzay, 21, was found helpless in a police withholding cell along the Banjor road in Virginia, outside Monrovia on October 20, 2015 and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. The police account of her death said she committed suicide by hanging in the cell, and that she died while being rush to the local hospital on the Island.

But the autopsy report ,which was released to family members on Thursday January 28, shows no bleeding into the scrap muscles and surrounding soft tissues. “The greater horns of the hyoid bone are soft and pliable and no fractures is present.” the autopsy report went on. “The thyroid cartilage is intact and no fracture seen,” the report went on.

The Justice Ministry authorized the autopsy performed by two Ghanaian pathologists on November 11, 2015, three weeks following the victims death in its effort to establish the actual cause of death.

The ministry is said to have opened the report which arrived here on Wednesday January 27, via DHL before the victim’s parents and human rights groups which included women’s group.

The finding also established that all Victoria’s organs were intact and therefore the Pathologists said they could not established the cause of death. The victim was also found to be pregnant at the time of death but the age of the pregnancy was not stated.

It could be recalled that on Wednesday October 21, Police spokesman Sam Collin commenting of the victim’s death said the 21-year-old female detainee, hang herself in the cell and while being rushed to the Redemption Hospital in NewKru Town, she was pronounced dead.

However, sources in the Virginia community where the victim resided prior to her incarceration, narrated that the Victoria Zayzay was member of a susu club or a local self-help organization and was allegedly indebted to the head of the club in the amount of 1,500 Liberian Dollars, adding that her failure to pay the money led the susu mother to have taken her to the police where she was subsequently charged and detained.

According to them, on Tuesday, the day the deceased was taken to the station, police officers on duty that night, deserted the station to go watch a live European champions league soccer match when the inmate was said to have been discovered helpless.

However, police spokesman Collins dismissed these claims as baseless arguing that it is not possible for an entire deport to be left alone without an officer. According to Collins, the late Victoria used her lapper and hang herself on the gate of the cell before officers noticed and went to her rescue, but she was already helpless, adding that the police decided to rush her to the Redemption Hospital, unfortunately she died enroute to the hospital.

By Othello B. Garblah