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A strange case at Hog Island
By Michael Jordan
Hog Island, Essequibo, is home to close to 300 hard-working, peace-loving souls, but once in a while, to loosely quote Shakespeare, something wicked that way comes.
The inhabitants of this farming community believe that something sinister passed their way in August 2010, when two men were found dead in a wrecked boat and a little boy who was with them simply vanished.
The belief by many is that the trio fell prey to a group of rogue coast guards. But dead men tell no tales.
And that case reminds some of the older folk of the fate of a farmer named Thakoor Persaud, whose relatives believe that he was the victim of an almost similar unsolved murder some 22 years ago.
Thakoor Persaud, called ‘Coran’, was one of the inhabitants of the large but sparsely populated island. The 49-year-old farmer was separated from his wife, had no children, and lived alone on the western side of the 23 square-mile island.
At around six o’clock on the evening of December 12, 1990, Persaud boarded his small boat and travelled to Southern Hog Island to visit his mother. But he was not alone. He was accompanied by a dark-complexioned stranger of Indian ancestry, who was reportedly known as ‘Blackie’. As mothers often do, she offered her son and the stranger meals. The two men then visited a nearby shop where they consumed some alcohol and ‘limed’ until midnight.
Persaud reportedly then climbed into his paddle-boat and proceeded on his two-hour journey back to his Western Hog Island home.
The following day, one of Persaud’s neighbours saw the farmer’s empty paddle-boat in the river, with breadfruit floating nearby. Sensing that something was seriously amiss, the neighbour went to a brother of Persaud’s who lived a few lots away and expressed his fears.
The brother hurried over to Persaud’s house. The sibling observed that the grass around the house was trampled and the house was ransacked. Of the farmer, there was no sign.
As word spread of his disappearance, Persaud’s relatives began to scour the Essequibo River for the missing farmer. Some of them suspected that his vessel might have collided with a tug during the night journey.
They checked several other islands in the area, but still found no trace of Persaud.
But for days after the farmer’s disappearance, a Hog Island resident passing near Liberty Island spotted the semi-nude body of a man floating nearby. From a scar on the right hand, relatives identified the decomposing body as that of Thakoor Persaud.
According to a brother, the dead man appeared to have been chopped behind the neck. There were reportedly similar wounds behind his feet. Relatives suspected that he was murdered for money that he had in his possession on the night he was drinking near his mother’s house. 
The brother said that ranks from the Wakenaam Police Station advised them to bury the decomposing corpse immediately. This was done in a sandy area near Hamburg Island, located opposite Wakenaam. According to the brother, the body was never exhumed for a post mortem and the police never returned to continue their investigation.
Relatives said that persons who know the family have given them the nicknames of two suspects. Both suspects reportedly reside at Fort Island. There is also the third man in whose company the slain farmer was last seen. Nothing more was heard of this individual.
But Persaud’s siblings are so convinced that he was murdered, and so afraid that they, too, would be targeted, that those who had resided at Hog Island all moved, leaving the slain man’s home and ten-acre farm unoccupied.
“We were scared to go back to the place where he was living,” one brother said. “The property was left like that. The entire family moved out.
But every time December comes around, we remember…”
If you have information about this or any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown offices. Our numbers are 22-58465, 22-58473 and 22-58458. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: [email protected].
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