Primary school pupil Rehanna Briggs had a bright and promising future, but it all came to an abrupt end on Friday evening when she was found dangling from a clothes line at her Williamsville, home. In what could only be described as a tragic accident, the 11-year-old girl, who was last seen playing with her niece at their home in Dyer Village, was found with clothes entangled around her neck and hanging from the clothes line.
Yesterday, when the SG Guardian visited Rehanna’s home, the house was locked. According to relatives, Rehanna’s mother Angela, who suffers from high blood pressure, had to be sedated after her daughter’s death. She is currently warded at hospital. Rehanna’s cousin Wanda Campbell, who lives next door, said the family was still in shock and were in the process of making funeral arrangements.
Police reports stated that Rehanna and her six-year-old niece, Eve, were playing when the child’s mother Laura took her for a bath around 5.35 pm. The woman returned at 6 pm and found Rehanna hanging from the clothes line. With tears rolling down her cheeks, Campbell said she was still in a state of disbelief that the child, who was the youngest of her siblings, was dead.
“I wish I did not see. You know you read about things with children, you hear about it, but it hit home now. We have no more Rehanna,” she sobbed. She explained that on Friday evening around 6 pm, Rehanna was playing with her niece at her home, a concrete structure which is under construction, when the child’s mother came and took her to bathe. Rehanna’s mother was not at home at the time.
Rehanna, Campbell said, was left alone for a “split second.” She said the sister-in-law returned to the house to get ice and juice when she found Rehanna’s lifeless body. “It happened so fast. I just hear her sister-in-law scream out ‘Wanda, Wanda I think Rehanna break her neck.’ I scream and run out saying, ‘no, no.’ They start pumping her (performing CPR) and give her air, but for nothing she wouldn’t move, wouldn’t breathe,” she sobbed as she wiped away tears.
She said relatives continued their frantic attempts to resuscitate Rehanna until the ambulance arrived. “When they hook up the machine to she, she was already flatline. There was no lines going up and down. The lines were flat on the (heart monitor) machine,” she said.
Rehanna was taken to the Princes Town District Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Campbell said Rehanna was the baby of her family and “she was always a jolly, happy child. She was always smiling. I cannot believe she is not here anymore.”
Rehanna’s aunt Jacqueline said Rehanna loved to dance, and she believes the girl was dancing and playing with the clothes on the line when she became entangled. Campbell said the girl loved to run and was a “tomboy.” She said she has two sons and always keeps an eye on them. “The games these children does play, these stunts. You always have to keep an eye. My two sons does play, too. People say I overprotective, but I does want to see them in front my eyes,” she said.
The Standard Four pupil of Hardbargain Government Primary School was expected to sit SEA next year. An autopsy is expected to be performed tomorrow. PC Ballantyne of the Princes Town CID is continuing investigations.