Battle over Bella

Weeks after the murder of four-year-old D’Onya “Bella” Walker rattled the country, a court battle is brewing over the rights to her body.

Monalisa Walker, Bella’s maternal grandmother, is fighting for the right to decide what happens with Bella’s remains. 

Describing the entire ordeal as a “nightmare from hell”, she said it is important to her that her daughter, Ostonya Walker, be able to attend her daughter’s funeral. 

“I wouldn’t wish this on nobody,” she said.

Ostonya Walker was charged with exposing a child to grievous harm and cruelty to children in connection with Bella’s death. Her boyfriend, Darion Smith, 33, was charged with murder and cruelty to children.

Police indicated that Bella died on November 5, after suffering blunt force trauma which resulted in punctured internal organs and broken ribs.

Dion Smith, Bella’s father, indicated previously that he was waiting on authorities to release Bella’s body so that she could be laid to rest.

He said he wanted to take her back to Grand Bahama and bury her there. 

However, Monalisa Walker is fighting to have her body removed from the funeral home chosen by Bella’s father, after learning that funeral plans are underway.

In a letter to Serenity Funeral Home, where Bella’s body is being kept, Walker said she identified the child’s body on November 8, but never gave instructions on the release of the body or burial.

She argued that Bella’s father is not entitled to have control of the body, nor make burial arrangements. 

“You have to face your own, but at the end of the day, that’s still my daughter,” Walker said.

“Ten years from now, when all of you forget about this, do you know that I still have to tell people that my granddaughter died?”

Bella moved to Nassau to live with her mother just two months before her death, after living with her father’s family on Grand Bahama for most of her life.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/battle-over-bella/