Latest update January 18th, 2025 4:15 AM
Cops re-open Monica Reece, Trevor Rose and Sheema Mangar murder cases
As the Guyana Police Force (GPF)’s Major Crimes Unit moved to re-open cold cases, the seemingly forgotten cases of Monica Reece, Trevor Rose and Sheema Mangar are top on its agenda.
Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum made this revelation yesterday to reporters following the conclusion of the Guyana Police Force’s 177th Anniversary Route March.
Blanhum said that almost daily, persons whose relatives were murdered five to 10 years ago, have been visiting the Criminal Investigation Department asking that these matters be re-opened.
“We have assured them that we are in the process of re-opening some of the cases we know for sure we will be able to make headway in,” Blanhum said
Having received about 20 requests from relatives, the cops are currently working on about five cases, some of which include the cases of Trevor Rose, Sheema Mangar and Monica Reece.
The Crime Chief said that he recently requested the file on Monica Reece.
“I recently requested that file (on Monica Reece). When we locate that file we will be analyzing the evidence and also we will make a determination and make contact with the Police Legal Advisor,” Blanhum said.
He added that ranks will have to look at the evidence, analyze and review statements taken and then engage the Police Legal Advisor on the way forward.
And Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud said, “We have seen the CID developing the best it has done in contemporary times, all because of those two key issues, building of morale and developing public trust.
I have been receiving letters from relatives of persons who were murdered a decade and beyond, and in a particular case, a letter from the media asking for the re-opening of a case that occurred in excess of twenty years ago.”
“We are experiencing the benefits of the hard work we have made to change our organization.”
“We need to keep going in that direction, we have not arrived, and as a matter of fact we are far from there.”
On April 9, 1993, Reece, a 19-year-old security guard became known to all Guyanese after her body was dumped from a speeding pickup vehicle in the vicinity of the Geddes Grant building (now Courts) on Main Street, Georgetown. It was Good Friday night.
Its 23 years and there seems to be no clue as to who killed Reece.
Trevor Rose was gunned down on January 26, 2014 while sitting in the back seat of a Toyota 212 with Latoya Towler, the mother of one of his children, at the Eccles Public Road, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
During the execution-style killing of Rose, Towler was shot to the buttocks and the driver Troy Nieunkerk was shot in the left shoulder.
Nieunkerk told investigators that he was heading home and offered Rose and Towler a drop to Eccles. While at Eccles, a tinted car, which was following the trio from Agricola, pulled up alongside Nieunkerk’s vehicle and asked why he was driving so recklessly.
Kaieteur News was further told that the driver of the tinted car parked his vehicle in front of Nieunkerk’s car, exited and opened fire, killing Rose on the spot.
From all indications, Rose was definitely the target although his relatives claimed that he had no known problem with anyone.
Meanwhile, Sheema Mangar was killed in September 2010 when she was run over by a car in which a man who had snatched her cellular phone was escaping.
The police processed two cars that were suspected to have been involved in the matter and items found on the vehicles were submitted to the Forensic Laboratory for analysis by Crime Scene Investigators.
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