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Dead man’s mother insists that victim was murdered

Feb 20, 2011 News

Body in Barama’s Buck Hall shredder…

“Last December when my son came home without his brother that was when I realize Jason is really dead,” said Sandra Parris.
Sandra Parris was the mother of the now dead Jason Fraser, 19, whose mangled corpse was pulled from a wood shredder at Barama’s Buckhall, veneer factory in Essequibo, last year.
Yesterday, the still grieving woman said that the company is misleading the public on certain aspects of the compensation the dead teen’s parent will receive.
Sandra stated that at no time this year did Barama ever contact her about an update in the compensation of her son’s death.
“The only time these people spoke to me was shortly after Jason die and every time when I call them they telling me that the company has problems and they can’t deal with me right now.”
Head of Corporate Affairs at Barama, Mohindra Chand, said that attempts were also made to contact the dead labourer’s family.
According to Chand, the company takes out life insurance policies on all of its employees. He said that the insurance company would give the policyholder three years of his annual salary.
The dead teen’s mother explained that in December of last year, she spoke to one Mrs. Griffith at the company’s head office at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara. She said that Griffith told her to check back with the company when the new year would have start.
“When I call Mrs. Griffith in December she told me that the factory would have already been closed and I would have to call back this year. She even said that she was thinking about me not too long ago.”
The woman still believes that her son was murdered and that he was not a victim of a freak accident as Barama alleged.
Parris asserted that when Jason’s remains were pulled from the machine, it was bundled in a black garbage bag and taken to the Suddie Hospital morgue. At the morgue attendants refused to keep the remains, hence it was left in the said bag near the fence.
It was buried one year later.
Parris also questioned why the corpse was not taken for a post mortem assessment. Hence the fast burial of Jason’s remains worries her.   “Was his body so badly shreded beyond the possibility of a post mortem examination?” cried Parris.
Fraser’s mangled corpse was found in the shredder after workers became aware of an unpleasant odour near the machine. That prompted a senior official to check the device.
According to the brother, the official also became suspicious after placing his hand in the machine and observing blood on his fingers.
After summoning the police, the staff dismantled the shredder and eventually discovered the labourer’s mangled remains.
The body parts were placed in two plastic sacks and taken to a hospital mortuary.
A statement by company officials said that Fraser died “as a result of a very unfortunate incident involving one of our chipper machines located at the Barama Buckhall Factory.”
Parris told Kaieteur News that in December, both she and the father of the teen were called by official from the company to a meeting. At that meeting they were offered $900,000 compensation but she refused to accept it.
“After they told me that they only giving me $900,000 that will have to be divided between me and his father I refused to collect it.”
“Mrs. Griffith even went as far as to inform me that if I was not satisfied I could carry the story to court.”
But a  Barama official, Chand, stated in an invited comment earlier this week that the company was waiting for a meeting to be convened with the Ministry of Labour to move forward on talks concerning settlement.
The Chief Labour Officer would have been facilitating that decision.
Chand said that officials from the timber company had checked with the Ministry of Labour two months ago to ascertain when the meeting will be held.

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