PARAMARIBO--The corpse that was found in a shallow grave on a road side in District Brokopondo has been identified as that of a young woman who has been missing since a little over a week ago.

 

Clarissa Raisa Boldewijn (20) was last seen on January 23, attending classes at the Anton de Kom University in Paramaribo where she was pursuing a degree. Reports are that she got up and left class after she received a phone call.

 

When she did not return home, her mother Marcia Seym issued her own alert, frantically asking the public’s help to locate her daughter. A day later, Seym’s car was found burnt out alongside a deserted road in District Para, about an hour’s drive from the university. Her daughter had used the vehicle to drive to school on the last day she was seen. Police then also sent out a missing person’s report a day later.

 

Then, on January 26, police announced that they had arrested a young man in connection with the young woman’s disappearance. Police did not say what the relationship was between their suspect Jonathan N. and Boldewijn, and what he was being detained for.

Reports are that on Tuesday, passers by found personal effects – a wig and gold jewellery – on the roadside in District Brokopondo, at a half hour’s drive from where the burn out car had been found. The personal items looked like what police had listed in their missing person’s report as belonging to Boldewijn.

 

When officers went to investigate, they noticed a patch of ground that had recently been dug up. It would turn out to be the shallow grave Boldewijn had been dumped in. It remains unclear how she died and whether the suspect in custody is considered the only person involved in her death.

 

The family has meanwhile identified the body as hers. Police said in a statement Tuesday evening that it disapproved of actions by a local newspaper journalist who had called the family from the grave site, to let them know that a body had been found. “The family that is already dealing with a lot of grief, rushed over and saw their loved one in a state that they would rather not have wanted to. We regret that things happened this way,” police said.

 

The Daily Herald