An 86-year-old Toronto woman who travelled twice to Guyana with two men from this country died in a Canadian hospital in November 2025, CBC News reported on Friday. Dorelia Licorish had granted Elton John Rambarrat and Daniel Gopie powers of attorney and signed a will leaving them her assets, including her Toronto home.
Her relatives allege she was neglected and are contesting the will. The men deny neglecting her, and Toronto police closed their investigation without laying charges.
CBC’s The Fifth Estate reported that Rambarrat and Gopie moved into Licorish’s home as tenants before becoming her caregivers. In 2024, she gave them powers of attorney over her property and personal care and named them as her sole beneficiaries. The men told CBC that Licorish was capable of making those decisions and wanted them to inherit her property.
Bank records filed in court showed that the men were added to her accounts in October 2024. Some of her investments were cashed out and money was withdrawn from her line of credit before the first trip to Guyana. Bank staff said the transactions were made with her consent. Licorish later told investigators she was unaware of withdrawals amounting to thousands of dollars. The men denied using her money for their own purposes and said it went towards repairs to her home.
Ontario’s Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee went to court in October 2024 seeking to take over Licorish’s financial affairs. CBC reported that seven months passed before the agency submitted evidence. By then, Licorish and the two men were in Guyana for a second time and appeared by video at a Toronto court hearing. The men told the judge they were building a house in Guyana and had brought Licorish because they believed it was unsafe to leave her alone. CBC published a photograph of a lot in New Amsterdam where sources said the men intended to build.
People who saw Licorish in Guyana told CBC she had grown too weak to leave the house on her own and was sometimes left alone for hours. Rambarrat and Gopie disputed that account, saying she had been well cared for and slept elsewhere. Licorish returned to Canada in July 2025. Friends and relatives told CBC that her health had deteriorated, and she later became bedridden.
Home-care records obtained by CBC showed that Licorish had developed a pressure sore by October 5, 2025. A nurse requested a specialist assessment on November 5 after the wound grew larger and deeper. CBC said it was unclear whether the assessment took place. Two days later, a nurse found Licorish unresponsive and she was taken to Scarborough General Hospital, where doctors found she had gone into septic shock from the infected wound.
Asked why she had not been taken to hospital sooner, Rambarrat told CBC that he and Gopie had deferred to the health professionals caring for her. Licorish died on November 21, 2025, ten days after the men agreed to move her to palliative care. The guardianship case was dismissed after her death.
Toronto police told CBC they had examined medical and home-care records and consulted people involved in Licorish’s care before concluding there was insufficient evidence to lay charges. Her relatives are challenging the will on the grounds that she lacked the capacity to sign it. Rambarrat and Gopie told CBC they were entitled to the Toronto house, where the broadcaster reported they were still living.
Gopie told CBC’s The Fifth Estate that he believed he and Elton John Rambarrat were entitled to the house. He said Licorish’s relatives had not cared for her and pointed to the personal care he said he had provided.
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