Who killed Dolly Baksh?

May 01, 2011 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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The area on the seawall near Pere Street, Kitty, has changed a lot since November 1979, when they found two battered bodies in the bushes that grow along the foreshore. Those bushes are now gone; just debris and crushed seashells remain. A lot of other things, too, have changed.
The residents who would have gone to gape at the bodies are either dead, have migrated, or their memories have been dulled by the three decades that have passed since then,
But here I was, back on the seawall, retracing the steps that the victims and their killer took 32 years ago.
The case had all the ingredients for sensation: A sensual belly-dancer, a sprinkling of political intrigue, and a killer who has never been caught.
Type the name ‘Dolly Baksh’ into Google, and you will see that there are some who claim to know how she met her end and who orchestrated her death and that of her friend, Tejpaul Singh.
For the younger generation, and for those who can’t remember, her name was Dolly Amana Baksh. It is said that she began showing her talent for dancing at the age of five. She made her first stage appearance at the age of eight and at the age of 12 was one of the performers in Carifesta ’72, which was held in Guyana.
By the time she reached her teens, Dolly, now a slim, fair-skinned beauty, had become a major attraction at fairs and stage shows, where she performed classical Indian dances. However, it was her sensual belly-dancing that mesmerised the crowds.
Some of her admirers reportedly described her as ‘Dolly who dances like she has no bones.’
Her dancing helped Dolly to land a part in the locally-made film Operation Makonaima. She also became a member of the People’s Culture Corps, which often performed at national events.
At the same time, her brother, Sammy Baksh, was also making a name for himself as a singer.
By 1979, according to a report in the Chronicle, Dolly had passed nine subjects at the GCE ‘O’ Level Exams, and also gained two ‘A’ Level passes. Dreaming of a career in medicine, she had successfully applied for entry into the University of Guyana.
On Saturday, September 15, 1979, 19-year-old Dolly, along with members of the Culture Corps band, performed at a cultural event at the Prime Minister’s Residence, in honour of the President of Guinea, Ahmed Seko Toure, who was in Guyana on a three-day visit. It was to be her last dance.
Two days later, on Monday, September 17, 1979, Dolly reportedly left the family’s Campbell Avenue home just past midday, after informing her mother that she was going to borrow a few books. Dolly apparently had a rendezvous with a male friend; 23-year-old Tejpaul Singh, a mechanical engineering student at the Government Technical Institute (GTI).
According to reports, the six-foot tall GTI student left his mother’s Industry, East Coast Demerara home early Monday morning for classes. The two friends were later seen walking casually along the seawall near Bel Air. Around four o’clock that afternoon, the police and ambulance service received almost simultaneous calls that two injured persons were lying on the Kitty foreshore.
When the ambulance service staffers arrived, they found a young woman of East Indian ancestry in a semi-conscious condition lying in a clump of bushes. Nearby lay a young man who was also of East Indian ancestry. The medics established that he was already dead.
Both victims were fully clothed, but someone had struck them with terrible force on their heads.
The murder weapon appeared to be a heavy length of greenheart wood, which was found near the dead man.
It was soon established that the victims were Dolly Baksh and Tejpaul Singh.
The badly injured dancer was rushed to the Georgetown Hospital but died shortly after. Autopsies would reveal that both victims had suffered fractured skulls.
Detectives, led by Crime Chief Cecil ‘Skip’ Roberts, focused their attention on trying to solve the double-murder. They immediately ruled out murder as a motive. Rape also did not appear to be a motive. But they had a suspect in mind: The seawall stalker.
SEAWALL STALKER
Back then, police were investigating a spate of brutal, unsolved attacks on lovers on the seawall. Prior to the double murder, a young rank from the Guyana People’s Militia (GPM) had been killed under similar circumstances. Around the same time, a young woman was beaten and left unconscious in the same area where the GPM rank had been slain. Luckily, passersby spotted the woman lying on the foreshore and saved her from being drowned by the incoming tide.
Crime Chief Cecil Roberts believed that Dolly Baksh and Tejpaul Singh hand been bludgeoned by the same apparently deranged man who seemed to be waging a vendetta against couples who ventured on the seawall.
According to the sleuth, it was “quite clear” that other lovers had suffered similar attacks but had not reported to the police.
The Crime Chief also felt that some of the victims might even have come face to face with the killer and would possibly be able to identify him.
In an appeal to the public, he explained that this information from other victims was vital for police to identify the person or persons behind the double-murder. Meanwhile, detectives cautioned other lovers to stay away from such lonely spots.
The day after the double-murder, police announced that they had made an arrest. It is unclear who he was or why he was held. However, the man was eventually released. From newspaper clippings I sifted through, nothing more was heard about the ‘seawall stalker.’
I found out that if ever there was a ‘cold case’, it was this one. Crime Chief Cecil Roberts has migrated, Julian Mendes, the reporter who covered the story for the Chronicle, is dead, and so are some of the detectives who had investigated the murders.
I checked the internet, and found out that persons on one website suggested that Dolly and her friend were done in by persons linked to a political group.
One contributor erroneously stated that the victims were slain at the Ogle foreshore. The contributor also mistakenly said that they were ‘decapitated’ (remember they were clubbed to death) on the same day of Dolly’s last performance.
I spoke to a few people who were around at the time of the killings and discovered that this is the version of events that they had heard back then and still believe.
But another person who knew Dolly Baksh well suggested that her death might have been orchestrated by persons from a political opposition group. He too, provided no evidence to link these individuals to the killings.
A relative of Dolly’s friend, Tejpaul Singh, also dismissed the theory that a madman had killed the two friends. However, he feels that an individual close to Dolly had a hand in her death. According to the relative, this individual went into hiding for several days after her death.
So, were Dolly Baksh and Tejpaul Singh slain by persons with political affiliations? Or were they innocent victims of a deranged, psychotic killer? But just who was the ‘seawall stalker’, and why did the attacks suddenly stop? Who was the suspect that police had held, and why was he arrested?
At the end of it all, after my visits to the archives, my trip to Kitty, and my surfing of the internet, I had come full circle.
Like ‘Skip’ Roberts back then, I would never know the identity of the person who killed Tejpaul Singh, and his friend, Dolly Baksh, the girl who used to dance as if she had no bones.

Dear Readers,
I am attempting to get information about the identity of the Guyana People’s Militia rank who was murdered on the seawall near Kitty in 1979, prior to the murder of Dolly Baksh.
Please contact me at Kaieteur News by letter or telephone our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office. Our numbers are 22-58465, 22-58458 and 22-58452.
You can also contact me at my email address: [email protected].
You need not disclose your identity.

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