Police bury body without post mortem

Dec 11, 2010 News

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There were some amount of uncertainty, confusion and pandemonium on Friday, first at the New Amsterdam Cemetery in Stanleytown, then at the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam and finally at the New Amsterdam Cemetery in Stanleytown when relatives of Orwayne Vieira, 40, called “Toes”, turned up for the second day to witness the post Mortem of his body.
The man was first identified as Dwayne Vieira, of 28 Holmes Street, Charlestown, Georgetown.  Vieira’s lifeless body was fished out of the Canje River on Monday.
The body was unidentified until the next day when persons from the National Psychiatric Hospital turned up and identified it as that of one of 25 persons (both male and females) who were rounded up in Georgetown and bundled off to the National Psychiatric hospital on November 25.
The arrest and detention was part of the government’s effort to rid the streets of mentally ill and destitute persons.
Vieira’s mother, Jennifer Sobers, his sister, Davana Sobers, and sister-in-law, Feisha Culley, had travelled to the Ancient County to witness the post mortem. However, as the saying goes, “It was old house upon old house”.
As if losing their relative in such a dastardly manner was not heartrending enough, nothing worked well for the family on their two trips to Berbice in two days.
In the end Vieira’s body which was left unsecured in a rough box in the New Amsterdam Cemetery since it was discovered on Monday, had to be buried without them getting the benefit of a post mortem. The doctor refused to conduct the autopsy.
Jennifer Sobers was inconsolable most of the time when the media caught up with her and other relatives at the New Amsterdam Cemetery. Her cry was her son was “no mad man and was not sick.”
She kept contending, “Is murder, is murder. They kidnapped my child and murder he.” All the while, she and other relatives are calling for justice and promise to do everything to get to the bottom of the matter.
They want to know why her son was picked up and dumped at the psychiatric hospital.   “This is murder, state murder. My son was not mad; why they did this to him? He knew his name, his address, his phone number and all his relatives, so why didn’t they make contact with his relatives?” she sobbed.
Mrs. Sobers, who stated that she made 21 children and raised 15, kept asking, why her child had to be “killed” in such a gruesome manner?
“Now the doctor refusing to do the post mortem. This look like a cover up, The doctor knew that he had to come to the cemetery why he ain’t come?”
Recounting her ordeal, the woman said that Orwayne who was her fourth child left home on November 24, about 18:00hrs as he would usually do.
Her son, she said, would go out and do jobs around the neighbourhood and would return home around 21 hrs.
However when she awoke the following morning she did not see her son and immediately made enquiries.
She said that she visited the Brickdam Police Station to see if he was there. She then filed a missing person’s report and also visited the Georgetown Public Hospital. She made checks at all other points that he would usually be, but to no avail.
As the days went by and her son did not return she kept hoping and praying for the best, but she was not prepared for what was to follow.
She said that on Wednesday last between 17:30hrs and 18:00 hrs she was by one of her son’s  Shurman Munroe house in the same yard when another son Beekam Vieira  came running towards   them saying Mummy, Mummy Miss Desiree said that “Toes” dead.
She immediately started to ask questions. How, where, why, when, were some of the questions.
She said that a son told her that Orwayne drowned and was found somewhere in Canje. She immediately asked how, why and what was her son doing in Canje, Berbice. She  related the story that was in the newspapers.
The woman said that she started to holler and thing; she lost consciousness. Her daughter, Dawana, immediately called GT&T to get in contact with the psychiatric hospital.
When contact was made they were told that the family would have to contact the police. Contact was made with the Central Police station in New Amsterdam and their worst fears were confirmed. They were told that they would have to come to Berbice to identify the body. They were about to travel immediately but were advised against doing so, she said.
On Thursday, the woman, one of her sons and her daughter-in-law journeyed to Berbice. To identify the body and witness the post mortem with a view of taking it back to Georgetown for burial.
In New Amsterdam they were told that the doctor said that he can’t do the post mortem since he has some other things to do. They were told to return on Friday, only for the same thing to happen.
“My son body gets worms and the doctor refused to do the post mortem.” The relatives said that they were told to reach by the cemetery for 08:00hrs to identify the body and witness the post mortem. They overheard the police informing the doctor that the body was decomposed and was at the burial ground and that he should reach there for 08:00 hrs.
However at the site they said that they waited there for a good time and after not seeing anyone they returned to the Police station and were told the horror story that the doctor said that he was waiting at the New Amsterdam Hospital and was on his way back to the Corentyne and that he will not turn back.
They were told by the police that the body had to be buried and if they desire it could be exhumed at a later stage.
They (the relatives) had travelled with cameras to take pictures to be examined for marks of violence since they believed that Orwayne was murdered; either beaten, injected and then dumped.
$30,000 from Manickchand
As if to add insult to injury, Mrs. Sobers said that when they visited the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security (the name should be changed a relative murmured) she was told that she cannot see the minister since she was otherwise engaged, however she protested emphasizing that she was there in connection with the unceremoniously death of her son.
Her protest lead the Secretary to convey a message to the minister who in turn informed that $30,000 should be released with the instruction that she must return with receipts.
At the cemetery the woman collapsed upon seeing the bloated and decomposed body of her son and had to be assisted by relatives.
“Ow me son. This one will not go down like, this one will not go down like this, they over doing the thing.”
“I will see all de relevant persons from the Commissioner of Police, all the Ministers, the Prime Minister and President, the United Nations and the Human Rights Association to get justice.
“If was they pickney they would have never treat am like dog so, I must get justice,” she continue to sub.
“I will picket the President if I have to do that.”  The relatives said that they later learnt that the government pick up some other boy from the Tiger Bay area by the name of “Blue Beef”, another named Li’l Mark” or “Li’l Eye” and “Tuseey” and they are also missing.
Vieira who went missing from his Georgetown home on November 24, was brought to the psychiatrist hospital on November 25, and went missing on Saturday December 4. Reports stated
that he got away from the institution in his bid to return to Georgetown.  Vieira, since he was incarcerated, kept saying that he was no mad man and that he is from Georgetown and that he will have to get back at all cost.
Sources said that the man had no knowledge of the area, and after running through the bushes apparently mistook the Canje River for a trench and attempted to swim across in his escape bid and drowned.
Sources at the NPH had stated that the government would usually pick up people and just dump them at the NPH; whenever there is a big activity in Georgetown they would just pick these people up and dump them here.
“Right now the institution is overcrowded and it is not safe to work at all,” the official said. The source added that many of these are not mentally ill and not screen or tested before they are dumped “here”. “It is not safe at all. They would do it without a warning,” the source had said.
The officials are questioning what happen to the half way house that was supposed to construct for destitute and homeless people and lamented the lack of a proper programme to treat these persons.

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