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What the street-walker saw in Robb Street
by Michael Jordan
At around 2.00 a.m. on November 16, 2014, a male streetwalker standing at the corner of King Street and North Road became aware that a car was continuously traversing the area.
The car eventually stopped at Robb and King Streets. Two men exited and headed to an old, three-storey structure. One of the men, who held a bottle from which flames emanated, kicked a door open. He entered the property and made an unsuccessful attempt to set it alight.
After the fire failed to spread, one of the men returned to the building and again attempted to set the building alight. The men then ran back to vehicle and drove away.
Sleeping in the top flat of the quickly-burning structure were 63-year-old Hilrod Thomas, and his two daughters, Theresa Rozario, 15, and 12-year-old Feresa Rozario.
When the flames reached their flat Thomas, though badly burned, managed to jump through a window. He succumbed a few days later. His daughters, trapped inside, were burned alive.
Rosemary Rozario, the mother of the two girls, and estranged from their father, collapsed on arriving at the scene. She would later express the view that someone had torched the building.
Rosemary Rosario collapsed at the scene
It soon emerged that the building was at the centre of a bitter and protracted dispute involving Hilbert Thomas and others, who were all claiming ownership, following the owner’s death in 2001.
One individual, who claimed that the property was willed to him, had repeatedly tried to get the Thomas family to vacate the building.
Three years prior to the tragedy, someone had tried to burn the same property while the children and their father were inside.
With the Guyana Fire Service investigators also confirming arson, police began to look for the individuals who had a motive in having the property destroyed, even if it meant committing murder.
One of the people the spotlight fell on was a city businessman who was insistent that the building was his, and who claimed to have documents to prove ownership. He had repeatedly clashed with members of the Thomas clan over the building.
Police took the businessman into custody, but were unable to implicate him in the arson-related murders.
Bu the businessman had his own take on the killings.
He claims that he became the legal owner of the property after his brother’s death in 2001. But he said that other individuals, including Hilrod Thomas and another relative, occupied the building and refused to move. According to him, one individual demanded $14M before he would move. Other occupants, he claimed, began to renovate sections of the property without his permission.
He alleged that some individuals tried to implicate him in an attempt to burn the building in 2009. During investigations into the deaths of the two girls and their father, he was detained several times, but was never charged.
While the investigation had appeared to have reached a dead end, police may have made a breakthrough a few days ago, when a drug addict told investigators that an individual, whom he identified, paid him $50,000 to set fire to the property.
Police arrested the drug addict and also detained another man who allegedly allowed the arsonist to gain access to the building.
Once again, they detained the city businessman who is claiming ownership. Though he’s been released, police have confiscated his passport, and have ordered him to report daily at CID Headquarters, Eve Leary.
In an interview last week, the businessman was adamant that he had no knowledge of the deadly arson attack.
“They said I paid people…absolutely not,” he said, while naming other individuals whom he claimed may have set the fire. He also insisted that attempts are being made to falsely implicate him.
Meanwhile, though, a file on the case has been dispatched to Legal Advisor to the Guyana Police Force, Former Justice of Appeal, Claudette Singh.
We may be just days away from knowing if anyone will be finally face justice for the murders of two innocent girls and their father.
If you have further information on this case or any other, please contact us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office or by telephone. We can be also be reached on telephone numbers 22-58458, 22-58465, or 22-58491. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: [email protected]
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