Third post mortem postponed

May 10, 2010 News

Family not likely to follow through

The third post mortem examination which was expected to be conducted today on the remains of Bridgette Gangadeen has been postponed indefinitely.

Sources close to the Gangadeen family told Kaieteur News that the family has not been able to procure a pathologist who would carry out the examination.

Bridgette Gangadeen

High Court Judge Justice Rishi Persaud, on Saturday granted a motion to Dwarka Gangadeen which prevented his wife’s family from cremating her remains.

As a requirement of the order, the husband must find a pathologist to carry out the examination no later than 10:30 am today. If this is not done the order would be discharged.

The source said that the family is presently being advised by their attorney not to follow through with the third post mortem.

Moreover, when this newspaper contacted the Jerrick’s Funeral Home, one staffer said that no one has requested the woman’s body.

The staffer said that they are awaiting the outcome of today’s court proceeding.

Meanwhile, Heeralall Sukdeo, an uncle of the dead woman, said that no one has called to inform the family what is taking place.

One police source close to the investigation has told Kaieteur News that a new file has been constructed. The file would be sent to the Director of Prosecutors Shalimar Ali Hack today. Meanwhile, Dwarka Gangadeen is still in police custody.

On Saturday Justice Persaud granted a motion stopping the cremation of Bridgette Gangadeen. He also ordered a third autopsy.

Minutes before the cremation was scheduled to begin, Dwarka Gangadeen turned up with court marshals to serve the writ to relatives. In the process of serving the writ, Gangadeen received a sound beating by the dead woman’s relatives in high drama at the Good Hope, East Coast Demerara foreshore.

Gangadeen had moved to the court to get the court order and secure his wife’s body after a Trinidadian pathologist – hired by the dead woman’s relatives —told Police investigators she was strangled.

Bridgette Gangadeen’s body, with her head crushed, was found lying outside the Vigilance Police Station last weekend. Relatives claimed that the woman endured 14 years of abuse, and have claimed she was murdered. But in a sworn affidavit, the man claims a blissful marriage with “minor problems.”

The Police had initially said that they were treating the case as murder, and not as an accident. Police in the first post mortem report said she died of a fractured skull.

Relatives of the dead woman paid some US$3000 to procure a Trinidadian pathologist, Hubert Daisley, to perform a second post mortem examination.

According to the pathologist’s report, which was seen by this newspaper, the woman died as a result of strangulation with hemorrhage in a left strap muscle of the neck and left thyroid gland.

Attorney-at- Law Basil Williams, who refrained from divulging too much, said that the Trinidadian pathologist even visited the vehicle and said it was highly impossible that the woman could have jumped from the vehicle and ended up underneath the wheel. The lawyer further queried why the victim had not suffered any broke limbs if she had jumped from the vehicle. (Latoya Giles)