MONROVIA, Montserrado – After the release of the autopsy report of Victoria Zayzay contradicted the Liberia National Police’s earlier account of suicide; the Ministry of Justice has announced a second autopsy.

Zayzay was alleged to have committed suicide on October 21, 2015, while in police custody after an altercation with another woman identified as Mamie Morris.

Police spokesman Sam Collins initially told journalists following Zayzay’s death that the victim had committed suicide in the police cell.

Sam Collins, Spokesperson Liberia National Police. Photo: Zeze Ballah

The Ministry of Justice recently released the autopsy report of Zayzay to her parents which did not point to hanging.
According to the autopsy report, abrasions on the victim’s forearms are consistent with injuries described as having occurred during the altercation, for which the deceased received treatment at the Faith Clinic.

The report also noted a pattern of bruises on the jaw of the victim, suggesting a firm right-hand grip of the jaw. However, the autopsy could not establish whether these occurred before or after detention in the police cell.

“The relationship to the death, therefore, is uncertain,” the report concluded.
The autopsy was conducted on Nov. 11, 2015, by two pathologists flown into the country from Ghana, Edward K. Wiredu and Lawrence Edusei.

The Director of the LNP, Chris Massaquoi, said that while the government awaited the autopsy report from the foreign pathologists, police had suspended all officers on duty at the time of Zayzay’s death.

“The findings into the investigation of the death of the victim will be made public when the government receives the autopsy report,” Massaquoi said.

The Police Director, who recently appeared at the Ministry of Information news conference, said to The Bush Chicken that the officers are still on suspension and that the LNP could not take any action against them because a second autopsy was underway.

“We cannot institute any action on the officers in the absent of the second autopsy report, which will determine the cause of death,” Massaquoi said.

Liberia’s Justice Minister Benedict Sannoh announced recently that specimens had already been taken from the victim by another pathologist to determine the cause of death.

When The Bush Chicken contacted Collins on his earlier statement that the victim death was caused by suicide, he declined to comment on the matter.

(L-R) Bernice Freeman of WIPNET and Rufus Zayzay at MICAT Press Conference Photo Zeze Ballah

The father of the victim, Rufus Zayzay has threatened to file a lawsuit against Collins for misleading the public that his daughter committed suicide while in a police cell.

Featured photo of Chris Massaquoi by Zeze Ballah