Three murders in one family

Jan 24, 2010 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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– a woman tries desperately to solve two cold cases

Devi Mahadeo will tell you that she first learnt about tragedy back in June, 1973, when she was just a little girl living with her parents, Mohabir and Rajkumar Mahadeo, and her seven siblings at Lusignan, East Coast Demerara.
She had recently written the Common Entrance Examinations and was anxiously awaiting the results.
But misfortune lurked around the corner. The country was preparing for General Elections, a time that has become synonymous with violence.
But 47-year-old Mohabir Mahadeo had no time for politics. To feed his large family, Mr. Mahadeo would rise before daybreak, pick up his cast-net, and go fishing in the backlands in villages near his home.
After that, he would embark on the laborious task of cutting cane at the Lusignan sugar estate, and then trek home to work in his garden.
On Monday, June 25, 1973, Mr. Mahadeo picked up his fishing seine and, accompanied by his eldest son, 14-year-old Prakash, headed to the backdam, reportedly in the community of Buxton.
Some hours later, a group of policemen arrived at the Mahadeo’s home. They informed Mrs. Mahadeo that her husband was dead and that her son, Prakash was in hospital. He had been stabbed in the chest.
What Devi and family members were later told by the injured boy was that Mohabir Mahadeo and his son were attacked by a mob while heading to Buxton. Reports are that
The mob reportedly wrapped Mahadeo in his fishing net, and beat him to death, while wounding his son, Prakash.
As he lay in his coffin, little Devi Mohadeo ran her hands through his thick hair, feeling the bruises on his head.
No one was ever arrested for Mohabir Mahadeo’s murder.
Years passed, and Devi Mohadeo became Devi Fung and had a family of her own, consisting of four healthy boys. The memory of her dad’s murder would occasionally resurface, particularly on Father’s Day. And surely, she must have thought that a tragedy like that would never again befall her family.
Devi’s eldest son was Trevor Julius Fung, a student of St. Stanislaus College, who had excelled at his CXC Exams. He had a love for animals and had his sights set on a career veterinary medicine after entering university.
On the night of February 14, 2004 18-year-old Trevor attended a Valentine’s Night party in Arakaka Street, Bel Air. At around 20:00 hrs, Trevor and a female University of Guyana student left the party briefly to go to a fast food outlet in Vlissengen Road.
After Trevor bought a ‘zinger’, they left the outlet and were heading back to the party when two men on a blue scooter rode directly up to the friends in the vicinity of Eping Avenue and Abary Street, Bel Air.
The men immediately made their intentions clear by ordering the friends to hand over their valuables.
Trevor pushed the robbers and began to struggle with one of the attackers, who had shoulder-length dreadlocks and was wearing a white shirt.
According to the female friend, she tried to run away after the man drew ‘something’ from his waist. However, the same robber pursued and caught her, then snatched her bag before fleeing.
The friend then returned to the scene of the attack and found Trevor Fung lying on the roadway. He had been stabbed four times and was unable to speak.
The young woman then returned to the party where she alerted the other friends. A stranger with a car took Trevor to the Georgetown Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit where he was pronounced dead.
As in the case of his grandfather, Mohabir Mahadeo, no one was ever arrested for Trevor Fung’s murder. Devi Fung was again left with the feeling that investigators had not done enough to apprehend the killers.
Heartbroken and frustrated, Devi Fung migrated with her family to Canada.
Meanwhile, her widowed mother, Rajkumar Mahadeo, continued to live in the family home in Lusignan, where she also raised a small herd of cows.
But the children who she had raised single-handedly had not forgotten her.
In December, 2009, 78-year-old Mrs. Mahadeo received the news that one of her daughters was coming from overseas for the Christmas holidays. The daughter promised that she would take the elderly woman overseas for a vacation.
“She was like a young kid, all so excited and was sharing the good news,” Devi Fung recalled.
“Her only concern was who will take care of he beloved cows.”
At around 05: 45 hrs on Christmas Eve Day, 2009, Mrs. Mahadeo’s son, who lived nearby, responded to a call from a resident.
That call caused him to hurry over to his mother’s house. There, he found Rajkumar Mahadeo lying dead on the parapet outside her yard.
She was still wearing two gold rings and gold earrings when her body was found, while her two silver bangles were found nearby.
The son reportedly observed blood on a nearby pasture where Mahadeo tended to her cows. One of the animals was found entangled in a rope, and some persons reportedly suggested that Mahadeo had been kicked while tending to the animals.
But a post mortem confirmed that she had been strangled. Someone had murdered a third member of Devi Fung’s family.
Devi Fung believes that her mother was murdered by someone with whom she had a dispute.
It is alleged that Mahadeo had received some threatening phone calls a few months before she was slain. The alleged culprit reportedly admitted to Mahadeo’s family that someone had told him to make the threats. It is alleged that he also apologised to Mrs. Mahadeo.
A resident was subsequently detained but released shortly after and. Devi Fung fears that this case has also gone cold.
“When I found out the events that lead to her death, then came the anger, the frustration and all the feeling of helplessness, for my gut feeling tells me we will not get justice again,” she said this week.
“Did this man (who allegedly caused the threats to be issued) get someone else to finish the job where this guy had left off? Did he do the job himself or was it someone else?
“Does a widow who had dedicated her life bringing up her children deserve to die this way?
This is going to haunt us for the rest of our lives especially if we do not get justice this time around.
Let me state this clearly my dad was not killed because he was Mohabir Mahadeo, but because he was an East indian due to pre election violence in 1973. My son was not targeted because he “ my son Trevor Fung” but killed by bandits. But mom was target because of who she is by someone in her community. To think someone would envy and hate her so much because she was now getting a change to travel at age 78 to see a few places, after all her sacrifice as a widow.
“This is too much for us her children to bear. For this reason, we have come together and decided to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest of her murderer. Not that we can afford it, but it’s just this feeling of helplessness, with no one or nowhere to turn to for help or justice. Soon, if not already her murder will be yet another cold case.” The reward is also for information leading to the arrest in the 2004 Valentine’s Day murder of her son, Trevor.
“The joy has been taken away from our lives,” she laments.
No father’s day
No mother’s day,
No valentines,
No Christmas.
“The only thing that keeps me going is the love of my children and having them in my life.”

If you have any further information on these cases or any other, please contact us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office or by telephone.
We can be reached on telephone numbers 22-58458, 22-58465, or 22-58491. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address [email protected].

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