Mob-style hit or murder for greed?

Aug 18, 2013 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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By Michael Jordan
What else could go wrong on a night like this?
That’s what we all thought on Thursday, May 9, 2013. Police had found the bodies of two young lovers in a car at Pearl, East Bank of Demerara – victims of a murder/suicide. The reporter who had covered the story had left for the day. After all, what else could go so tragically wrong?
But just before midnight, something did.

A loud explosion shook houses in Area Q, Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara, a quiet, upscale community also known as GuySuCo Scheme.
Those who rushed to the scene of the explosion were greeted by the eerie sight of flames emanating from a concrete, two-storey house in the community. The blast had left a huge hole in one of the walls. Residents could see the flickering flames through the gaping hole.
The Lot 22 property belonged to 54-year-old businessman Totaram Mootoo, also known as ‘Beer’, and his 48-year-old wife, Bhajmattie Mootoo.
Sheik Yaseen, a close friend of the couple, would later state that had heard two gunshots prior to the blast. One of the first at the scene, Yaseen reportedly observed a white car with tinted windows driving away from the area.
Yaseen also noticed that both of Mr. Mootoo’s vehicles were parked outside the premises.
But where were Totaram and Bhajmattie?
Close relatives tried to reach the couple on their cell phones. They got no answer.
Snapping off the padlock from one of the gates, Yaseen entered the house via an unlocked door in the bottom flat. But the intense heat drove him back. Firefighters arrived at the scene shortly after. They eventually gained control of the blaze and began to scour the house.
Shortly after midnight, Totaram Mootoo’s badly burned body, with hands bound behind the back with duct-tape, was found in the couple’s master bedroom. Nearby, investigators found his wife’s charred remains. They found no trace of Mr. Mootoo’s licenced handgun.
It was all too clear that police were dealing with a brutal double-murder.
Investigators concluded that the killers arrived shortly before 11.00 p.m. on Thursday, May 9, at the Mootoos home. It is believed that the businessman did not feel threatened by his visitors, so he let them in.
It is believed that the visitors and their intended target conversed at a table and even had refreshments. Then things quickly turned ugly.

Some sources believe that after that ‘decent conversation’, the visitors forced the Mootoos to accompany them to the couple’s bedroom, where they duct-taped the businessman’s hands behind his back. It is believed that the visitors tortured the couple and forced Mr. Mootoo to open a money safe in his room.
The killers then placed a 20-pound gas cylinder on the bed and ignited it. The cylinder ‘bomb’ blew a hole in the bedroom wall and tore off parts of the zinc-sheet roof. Fragments of a gas cylinder were found on the bed and other fragments in the yard. Post mortem examinations confirmed that the Mootoos were alive when the killers detonated their ‘bomb’. They had succumbed from extensive burns and smoke inhalation. Both victims also sustained blunt trauma.
An investigator at the scene would later remark that he had seen explosives such as grenades used in other local killings, but never a gas cylinder. He said that the use of the gas cylinder was reminiscent to crude incendiary devices used in bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But who could have planned such a cruel death for the Mootoos?
Detectives were unable to glean any information from surveillance cameras in the community. The fire had also destroyed the lone surveillance camera on the slain couple’s home.
Some of the detectives knew Totaram Mootoo. He was once incarcerated and later freed for manslaughter. He had operated a rum shop and subsequently became involved in several businesses, including money-changing, gold mining and the sale of fuel. Some close relatives of the slain man have said that he had repeatedly complained of being owed large sums of money.
Police also received reports that Mootoo was expected to collect some $57M on the Thursday that he was killed. This pointed to a theory of someone killing the couple to avoid paying off their debts. But everything else suggested that someone with a proficiency in execution-style killings had murdered the couple.
Some sources pointed to the fact that two of Totaram Mootoo’s close associates, Intaz Roopnarine and Jason Wills, were gunned down a few months earlier.

These sources, including some police ranks, suggested that the victims were slain by persons linked to a foreign gang that accused some Guyanese of fleecing them of a substantial amount of money.
There were reports that Mootoo had recently sold a plot of land for some $40M, allegedly with the intention of paying his debt. However, the individual to whom he sold the property failed to pay him immediately. The businessman was still waiting for payment when he was executed. Police officials sharply dismissed this theory.
Meanwhile, investigators detained then released three of Mootoo’s close associates, including a bodyguard and a handyman. The case appeared to be going in the direction of other execution-style killings… that is, nowhere.
But some three weeks later, one of Totaram Mootoo’s brothers contacted me. He had flown in from overseas. He is convinced that two avaricious men with very, very close ties to the couple plotted their death. He believes that the men hired a close associate of his brother to carry out the execution. According to the brother, the two suspects stood to reap huge financial gains from his brother’s demise.
According to the brother, he learned about the couple’s death sometime after 03:45 hrs on May 10, 2013, after receiving a call from one of his brothers. He said that two suspects immediately came to mind, and he subsequently received information that seemed to confirm his suspicions.
The man said that he contacted the couple’s two sons, who later travelled to Guyana.
Mootoo’s brother suggested that the murder plot was hatched about a month prior to the Mootoos’ execution. He also believes that someone tampered with the surveillance equipment in the couple’s GuySuCo Scheme, Turkeyen residence.
According to the brother, Totaram Mootoo was in the habit of keeping large sums of currency in his home and was upset after several million in local currency disappeared from his residence.
He claimed that the money-changer kept two safes in his residence and alleged that one of the safes had disappeared. He suggested that the individuals who plotted his brother’s death paid off the killers with some of the cash from his sibling’s stolen safe.
Police sources later confirmed that the brother and an in-law of Totaram Mootoo had relayed their suspicions to them.
A source told Kaieteur News that detectives had been examining other motives but were now pursuing this new lead.
Mootoo’s brother has said that he is determined to assist the police in every possible way to bring the killers to justice.
If you have any information about any unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown offices. Our numbers are 22-58465, 22-58473 and 22-58458. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address [email protected]

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