Non Pariel man’s death baffling investigators

Dec 08, 2008 News

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Investigators on the East Coast of Demerara are awaiting a post mortem report to determine the cause of death of 51-year-old Balkissoon Latchman, whose body was picked up on the Coldingen Access Road at around midnight on Saturday.

The body was discovered by ranks of a police mobile patrol lying partly in a trench a few yards from his children’s residence, where he had earlier attended a Bar-B-Que.

Initial reports suggest that Latchman, who lives at Non Pariel, East Coast Demerara, may have been a murder victim, but police are not convinced, since they are of the opinion that the furniture factory employee died by drowning.

The bicycle he was riding was found a few feet from his body.
Although family members had missed Latchman on Saturday night, it was not until Sunday morning that they learnt of his fate.

Rita Doesan, the dead man’s reputed wife, told this newspaper that Latchman attended the Bar-B-Que, which was hosted by his son and daughter at their residence at Coldingen.

She said that she encouraged him to come home early, since there were a lot of violent incidents in the area recently.

“Me tell he go early and come home early, don’t stay too late,” Doesan told this newspaper.
She said that when it got late and Latchman did not come home, she became worried. 
Sunday morning came and still Latchman did not arrive home.

Sensing that something might have happened to her husband, Deosan called his sister to enquire if she knew what had happened to him.

The sister then contacted Latchman’s children who had hosted the event, and they related that they had learnt that someone was killed not far from their home but they did not know if it was their father.
“When they check the mortuary, it was him,” Deosan told this newspaper.

The woman said that Latchman was not robbed, but she believes that he was the victim of foul play, since the body bore marks of violence.

“When I see he didn’t come home, I say he must be deh by he son helping with the Bar-B-Que, not knowing that is dead he dead,” Deosan added.

A police source who was on patrol on Saturday night disclosed that they were passing through the Coldingen area in the vicinity of the railway embankment, at about midnight on Saturday, when they saw a man lying on the parapet with his head partly in a shallow drain.

When they checked, they observed that the man appeared to be dead.
They picked him up and took him to the Georgetown Hospital, where his death was confirmed.
“It appears as if he was dead long. His face was in the water and the body was stiff,” the source said.

Yodhan Latchman, the dead man’s son who had hosted the event, related that he did not know when his father left the venue for his home.

He said that he missed his father at around 21:30 hours and assumed that he was at home.
The young man explained that, although his father had a few drinks, he was not intoxicated.

After midnight, the music at the Bar-B-Que was switched off, and a police patrol which was passing stopped to make sure that everything was alright.

However, according to the young Latchman, the police vehicle drove off and stopped a short distance away from his house, switching on its flashing light, indicating that something was happening.

But the younger Latchman assumed that the police had stopped a vehicle and were carrying out their normal duties.

He had no idea that they had stopped because of his father’s body.
“I thought that they had pull over a car or a drunk driver or something. I leave it as that and I went inside.”
Yodhan Latchman said that a few minutes later, a friend who had left the venue to catch a bus returned and told him that the police had just discovered a dead man lying on the parapet.

Latchman still had no idea that it was his father.
At about 7:15 hours yesterday, he received a telephone call from his aunt, who told him that his father did not go home the previous night.

Immediately he recalled the information he had received the night before about a body lying on the Coldingen Access Road parapet, and he became worried.

“Right away, I thought about my father, because I know he would not sleep out. I called the Vigilance Police Station and enquired if they had found someone lying on the road, and they said yes. I asked them the description of the person and they confirmed what he was wearing at the time,” Latchman said.

He went to the station and, upon seeing his father’s blue bicycle, immediately realized that it was indeed his father’s body that the police had picked up.

“I run out the station and was heading to the Lyken Funeral Parlour when the police called me back and told me that the body was at the Georgetown Hospital Mortuary. I left in a taxi and went there. When they showed me the body, I was now certain that my father had died,” Latchman informed.

He said that his father had a wound under his left eye and another huge gash on his forehead, which appeared to have been inflicted by a lash with a hard object.

He said that his father’s bicycle was not damaged, nor was there any sign of broken glass, which would have suggested an accident.

The family is also eager to learn from the post mortem examination, which will be done on Wednesday, how Latchman died.

The Coldingen/Non Pariel area has been plagued by a series of violent criminal attacks within the past two weeks, and Latchman’s family is hoping that he was not one of the victims of those attacks.

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