The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

A WOMAN who awoke on January 6 to find herself on fire died in hospital on January 22, and her family believes she was set ablaze by someone she knew.

Relatives said Anishka Bonabey, 31, suffered 85 percent burns to her body.

Police had reported that the woman was alone in her home on West End Avenue, off Baillou Hill Road, when she woke to find herself being burned sometime before 4am. She escaped the house, which was engulfed in flames. 

Giovannia Demeritte, the woman’s cousin and the family’s spokesperson, said the woman was placed in a medically induced coma, likely because of the pain she experienced.

“Surgery was carried out in an attempt to use skin from another part of her body to aid in healing, but unfortunately, it wasn’t very helpful because of the extent of the burns,” she said, adding that an infection affected her.

While the family claims police have left them in the dark over the investigation, press liaison Chief Superintendent Sheria King said  that authorities are still gathering information.

Ms Demeritte said: “We’re not completely certain about what is happening or the state of the investigation. Hopefully, with some traction being given to her story, we can get some answers now.”

“The overarching note from everyone was that they didn’t even know somebody got burnt or that somebody died.”

Ms Demeritte said the family has learned that her cousin had been abused.

“Unfortunately,” she said, “the only person who was really able to say exactly who it was definitively would have been Anishka.”

She described her cousin as lively, funny and family-oriented.

“I don’t know if I would say her upbringing was difficult, but she has been a victim of life, but she was doing the very best that she could,” she added.

Bonaby, who had no children, worked various jobs to make a living.

“She had the potential to accomplish so much, and now she won’t get to,” her cousin said.

The family will hold a candlelight vigil on Friday to pay tribute to the young woman who lost her life under tragic and suspicious circumstances.

“A growing issue that I have is our outcry isn’t sustained,” Ms Demeritte said, referring to a focus on violence against women.

“It’s not something that we maintain. Something bad happens, and everybody’s sorry, but then, shortly after, everybody moves on with their lives. It’s my hope that with Anishka’s life, we’re able to actually sustain an outcry until something’s done.”

Bonaby’s mother, Prescola Beneby, declined to comment yesterday, saying: “It’s too much for me right now.”