Sheema Mangar and the shadows of Main Street

Sep 19, 2010 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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By Michael Jordan

She was about to speak, and I sensed that she was finally going to tell me who had killed her.
But before she could form the words everything faded, and sunlight was streaming through my bedroom window, and I realised that I had been dreaming about her on a bright Sunday afternoon.
That was 18 years ago, and since then, I have written numerous times about her, while dropping clues as to who her killer might be. And after a detailed article last year, I had thought that I had finally put those dreams and memories to rest.
But then last week Friday, something happened to bring it back.
It had been a rather quiet day and we were about two hours away from going to press when we got the call.
The information the caller gave almost sounded like a hoax. Even after calling a source for further details, the story still seemed unbelievable.
The upshot was that I hurried to Camp and Norton Street, gloomy and almost deserted at that time of night.
But I managed to find an eyewitness to confirm the bizarre story.
Around 18:30 hrs, the woman saw a dark-complexioned man in a red sweater run past her from Norton Street into Camp Street.
She then saw a young woman, later identified as Demerara Bank employee Sheema Mangar, running behind the man and screaming: “Thief.”
According to the eyewitness, the man entered a grey or ‘fawn-coloured’ car that
was parked near the Methodist Church in Camp Street.
The young woman then stood in front of the car while demanding that the man give back her cell phone.
Instead, the eyewitness watched as the occupants of the car drove forward, crushing the woman under the wheels of the car, and dragging her to Church and Camp Street.
Leaving the injured woman on the roadway, the occupants of the car sped east up Church Street.
The eyewitness said that she never saw the licence.
I learned that the victim was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and then to the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.
I was told that her arms were broken, there was a deep gash on the right side of her head and that she was badly bruised.
The impression I got was that Sheema Mangar had ‘only’ sustained these ‘minor’ injuries.
But at around 06:00 hrs I received another telephone call: The woman who had been run over by the cell phone thief was dead.
By this time, police officials had turned the case over to their Homicide ranks, since they were treating the matter as a murder.
On Monday, the police picked up a 31-year-old man from Kingston. The man, who had previous brushes with the law, drove a silver-grey car. The vehicle’s bumper and bonnet were slightly damaged.
According to police sources, they had picked the man up because informants had suggested that he might be the driver of the car that killed Mangar.
The Crime Scene experts had found a single strand of hair on the vehicle, and they believed that the hair might be Sheema’s.
Four days later, police revealed that they had
Unearthed no further evidence and had released the suspect on station bail.
He was still a person of interest and was ordered to lodge his passport with the police.
The more I followed the Sheema Mangar murder, the more I remembered the other murder that had happened in Main Street in 1992.
One was murdered at night and dumped from a pickup in Main Street. The other was robbed and run over by a car in Camp Street.
Police impounded several 4×4 vehicles (there weren’t that many back then) and retrieved forensic evidence.
Police impounded a car and have gathered forensic evidence from it.
Police arrested and then released suspects in the Main Street case.
Police arrested and released two people in the Sheema Mangar case and impounded a car. They have now arrested two more people and seized another car.
In the Main Street murder, a pathologist took forensic samples from the victim and sent them overseas.
Investigators have taken samples from Mangar’s body with the reported intention of sending them overseas.
Back in 1992, key investigators complained that some press reports were scaring off potential witnesses.
And the same may have happened in the Sheema Mangar investigation.
One press report revealed that the woman who saw the car run over Mangar is a vendor.
That report has resulted in the vendor going into hiding.
But I hope this is where the similarity between these two cases ends. Because it’s 18 years on, and the Main Street killer has not been caught.
I hope Mangar’s killers are not that fortunate. One pretty woman haunting my dreams is enough.

If you have any information about Sheema Mangar’s death, and the identity of the perpetrators, please contact Kaieteur News at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown location.
We can be reached on telephone numbers 22-58465, 22-58491 or 22-58473.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address [email protected].

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