The family of 11-year-old Adriana Younge, whose body was discovered on April 24 in the pool of the Double Day Hotel in Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, has announced that her funeral will be held on June 22.
A forensic examination was initially conducted on April 28 at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), with three international pathologists—Dr. Glenn A. Rudner of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, Dr. Shubhakar Karra Paul of Barbados, and Dr. Gary L. Collins of Delaware—concluding that Adriana died by drowning. However, they were unable to determine the exact time of death due to the advanced state of decomposition.
The funeral was originally scheduled for May 5 but was postponed.
A second autopsy was later carried out on May 29 at the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner’s Office and Morgue in Georgia, USA. The medical examiner there found that the initial autopsy had been conducted thoroughly, but noted that some questions remained unanswered.
Dr. Mark Devonish, MBBS MSc MRCP(UK) FRCP(Edin), a Consultant in Acute Medicine at Nottingham University Hospital and a weekly columnist for Village Voice News, has publicly challenged the findings of the initial forensic report.
Dr. Devonish argued that Adriana did not drown in the pool, referencing Archimedes’ Principle of buoyancy. He noted that in typical drowning cases, a body sinks due to the intake of water increasing its density. Adriana’s body, however, was discovered floating and showed no signs of bloating—an expected post-mortem sign caused by gas buildup that can cause temporary resurfacing.
He highlighted that the absence of bloating and the body’s floating position are inconsistent with standard drowning indicators in a large body of water. Based on these discrepancies, Dr. Devonish proposed an alternate theory: Adriana may have been sedated, drowned in a smaller volume of water, and later placed in the hotel pool.
