Are police finally solving their ‘cold’ cases?

Sep 22, 2014 News

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Is the Guyana Police Force finally making inroads on their long list of unsolved murders?
Crime Chief Leslie James and some of his senior ranks seem to think so.
“I’m happy that persons who are prone to such crimes would not be on the road for some time. Our general approach has been to capture the people who commit such crimes and get them before the courts,” the Crime Chief said.
“I need the nation to understand that the Guyana Police Force, especially the CID, is dealing with serious crimes frontally. Almost all serious crimes committed recently have been solved.”
And indeed, the Guyana Police Force has been closing quite a few high-profile and challenging cases in recent months.
SOLVED
Between June and September, detectives have solved over six murders.
On Tuesday, June 10, the body of Shelly Ann Persaud, a mother of three, was found at the bottom of the back step of her Friendship, East Bank Demerara home. Her head was in a five-gallon bucket of water. Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh gave the cause of death as drowning due to compression injury to the neck.
Hours after the discovery, police arrested Persaud’s reputed husband, 31-year-old Navendra Seeram, who had found the body. He was subsequently charged with murder.
On the morning of Wednesday, March 26, a relative ventured to the Christiani Street, North Ruimveldt home of 75-year-old Joyce Lewis, after the elderly woman, who had been living alone since her husband’s death, failed to answer several calls made to both her cellular and landline phones.
On entering the house, the relative found Mrs. Lewis’s partly nude and bound body in one of the bedrooms.
Some five months after she was slain, police arrested 23-year-old labourer Junior Williams, also known as Kevin Alfred for her murder.
Investigators alleged that the suspect’s prints matched fingerprints that were found in Mrs. Lewis’s house. He was subsequently charged with murder.
Residents of Plaisance, East Coast Demerara got a shock on August 8, when the body of Jennifer Ann Mendonca was found in her bed. Her hands were bound with duct-tape and a plastic bag was tied over her head, two pillows were also placed on her face. A post mortem examination determined the cause of death to be asphyxia due to strangulation and blunt trauma to the head.
Less than a week later, police detained 18-year-old handyman, John Hetsberger, who occasionally did odd jobs for Mrs. Mendonca. Police said that they unearthed evidence that connected him to the crime and he was subsequently charged.
On Wednesday, August 14, Deochand Singh, 48, of Freeyard, Port Mourant, Berbice, was about to enter his yard after coming from a wake-house when he was clubbed and stabbed repeatedly. The attacker then slashed Singh’s neck.
Singh’s attacker was reportedly attempting to get rid of the corpse when police arrived. They arrested the slain man’s stepson, 20-year-old Inderjeet Sewdan, 20, who was subsequently charged. The presence of security cameras was a major factor in police apparently solving another brutal murder in which robbery appeared to be the motive.
On August 18, last, dredge owner Ashook Ragghu and his wife were travelling in their car along Vlissengen Road, when two men on a motorcycle cornered them at the traffic light at the Vlissengen Road and Regent Street junction.
After shooting Ragghu in the chest, the duo allegedly grabbed the victim’s haversack which contained $4M, but his wife, Shyrazadi Ragghu, held onto it. However, she released the bag after the robbers shot her in the thigh. Mr. Ragghu was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
Less than five days later, police arrested Travis McDougall, a 24-year-old labourer. Mc Dougal, along with Jermaine Otto, 25, of 735 East Ruimveldt, Georgetown, was subsequently charged with Ragghu’s murder.
On Friday, May 2, Chetram Bharrat, a fisherman, was sleeping in his Haslington New Scheme, East Coast Demerara home, when an intruder chopped him to death. The assailant also wounded Chetram’s wife, Lomattie Ramdat.
Four days later, police posted a wanted bulletin for a suspect, 38-year-old Errol Khan known as Venood Maraj of Lot 72 Blossom Scheme, East Coast Demerara.
But Khan remained on the run for four months before police caught up with him. He was subsequently remanded. Patience and good luck also enabled detectives to a breakthrough in a difficult case.
Ashmini Harriram, a 19-year-old cosmetologist, was heading to her home at Lusignan in early July when a man emerged from a car, snatched her phone, and shot the teen in the head.
Two months after Harriram’s murder, police detained and charged 29-year-old Lennox Wayne, called ‘Two Colours’ and 26-year-old taxi driver Elroy Doris, in connection with the crime, while indicating that the suspects were hired to kill the cosmetologist.
Police say that some of their success came as a result of new technology that the Force has acquired, as well as the fact that citizens appear to have more trust in police ranks, and are therefore cooperating with investigators.
Despite their successes, police are still challenged by a number of new unsolved murders.
They are still to apprehend the bandit who shot 29-year-old Guyana Water Inc. employee Marvin Cumbermack, dead on August 11in Section ‘E’ South Sophia, and made off with his motorcycle.
Police are still uncertain about the fate of Nyozi Goodman, who disappeared on Sunday, July 6, 2014, after accompanying some of her students to the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue. Investigators suspect that skeletal remains found at Pattensen, East Coast Demerara, may be those of the missing teacher. They have taken DNA evidence from the remains and from Goodman’s close relatives. However, Crime Chief Leslie James told Kaieteur News last week that the Force is still to receive the results on the samples which were sent overseas.
Detectives are still trying to identify the individual(s) who strangled and dumped 26-year-old Pradika Persaud on a roadway at Boerasirie, East Bank, Essequibo a few weeks ago.
Police had questioned a taxi driver after receiving reports that he was seen drinking with Persaud, who is an alcoholic, some hours before her body was found.
Kaieteur News understands that samples were taken from the victim for possible DNA testing, since it is suspected that she was also sexually assaulted.
And despite seeing his face on a security camera, police are still to positively identify the man who gunned down 49-year-old waitress Debra Blackman in the Chinese Delicious Restaurant on August 22.
Blackman was standing behind the counter when she was shot by a man of African ancestry, who was wearing a black cap with a red peak.
Police said that the killer and an accomplice fled the scene on a CG motorcycle.
Police recently released images of the suspect and appealed to persons with information about the killer’s identification to contact them on telephone numbers 225-6411, 225-2227, 227-1149, 226-7065, 225-8196, 911, or the nearest police station. All information will be treated with strict confidence.
And last Tuesday, the nude and battered body of 32-year-old Samantha Ashby, was found in a clump of bushes at Matthew’s Ridge.
A postmortem revealed that she sustained multiple injuries including a  fractured skull and broken hip. She was also sexually assaulted.
Police took three men into custody after receiving reports that they were seen drinking with Ashby at a Matthew’s Ridge shop some hours before she was murdered. They have since been released.
However, investigators took DNA samples from the victim and the suspects and hope that they can match them to samples extracted from two used condoms that were retrieved from the scene.

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