Mr. Martinez and his apartment of secrets

Aug 14, 2016 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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By Michael Jordan

I guess you can call it a jigsaw puzzle withmissing pieces.

We know the killer. We know his victim.
But there are things that we may never know. Like what, if anything, did a water-submerged computer have to do with this unusual case?
And what drove a ‘quiet’ middle-aged foreigner to butcher his lover?
So let me tell you the tale of Mr. Martinez’s secret. And I’ll tell you what I think started it all in that apartment almost six years ago.
The secret began to unfold on Wednesday, March 3, 2010, when 47-year-old Usawatie Persaud told her mother that she was going to the High Court in Georgetown to tie up a legal transaction and to purchase items for their shop.
Persaud lived at Lot 21 Main and St. Magdalene Streets, in New Amsterdam, and was the common-law wife of businessman Hemnauth Ramdatt, owner of the Cycle Store Mara and Sons Grocery, Cycle Shop and General Store.
According to reports, Usawatie’s mother, who had a heart ailment, also travelled to Georgetown, since she had an appointment with a doctor.
Some time between 11:30 hours and 11:45 hours the mother called Usawatie to inform her that she had completed her session. The mother then headed back to Berbice on her own.
Later in the afternoon, one of Usawatie’s sons called to enquire where his mother was. It was then that the family realised that she had not returned to New Amsterdam. They became worried when they were unable to reach her on her mobile phone.
The following day, Usawatie’s son travelled to Georgetown. He went to the Brickdam Police Station where he reported her missing.
Now, family members were accustomed to Usawatie’s travels to Georgetown.

Some of the woman’s visits took her to the Lot 136 Eping Avenue, Bel Air apartment of 59-year-old Cuban physiotherapist Guillermo Valintin Martinez. The Cuban had lived for many years in his adopted home and was popular with his patients.
But on Thursday, March 4, 2010, some of the occupants of the two-storey house at Eping Avenue began to sense that something was not quite right at the Cuban’s apartment.
Patients were turning up to see Martinez. But there was no sign of the Cuban,
Eventually at around 14:00 hrs on Friday, March 5, after more patients turned up and failed to see Martinez, a man who lived in the building drew back one of the window blinds in the Cuban’s apartment.
He was assailed by an unpleasant smell and saw something that made him summon the police.
The detectives entered Martinez’s apartment. They were immediately assailed by the stench of death.
A woman’s decomposing body lay on a blood-soaked mattress in the hallway. She was nude, and someone had stabbed her at least ten times. The wounds were to the throat, chest and stomach.
There were also defensive wounds on her arms, where the victim had tried to ward off the attack.
The detectives located a passport which identified the woman as 47-year-old Usawatie Persaud.
The policemen then proceeded to the bedroom. The bed inside had no mattress, and the decomposing corpse of a middle-aged man lay on the bare bed-springs.
He was quickly identified as physiotherapist Guillermo Valintin Martinez Stable. His body bore no marks of violence.
However, the dead man’s mouth was filled with an unidentified liquid.
Scouring the apartment further, the investigators retrieved a blood-stained kitchen knife. They were puzzled when they found a laptop computer submerged in water in a washing machine.
Investigators surmised that Martinez had murdered his friend, Usawatie Persaud before taking his own life.
That appeared to be clear-cut. What was unclear was why?.
They decided to delve further into the victims’ lives.
A few days later, Home Affairs officials discovered that Martinez had applied for Guyanese citizenship.
In the application, Martinez stated that he was married and identified Uswattie Persaud as his spouse.
Investigators then unearthed a General Registrar’s Office marriage certificate, which stated that Guillermo Valintin Martinez Stable and Usawatie Persaud became man and wife around February 2000.
It meant that that Uswattie was married to Martinez while living in Main Street, New Amsterdam Berbice, with her common-law husband.
According to police sources, the fingerprints on the bloodstained knife matched Martinez’s prints.
But the investigators still wanted to know what had caused Martinez to go berserk.
They were certain that information on the computer from the physiotherapist’s apartment held clues to the motive.
But the water-soaked laptop had been irreparably damaged.
Martinez was buried a few days ago and police have reportedly declared the case closed.
But that still leaves the missing part of the puzzle: What pushed Martinez over the edge?
Here are some theories.
Was it possible that Uswattie Persaud found out something about her Cuban husband; something so upsetting that she confronted him with it?
Was that evidence on the laptop?
Did she perhaps threaten to expose him to officials at the Cuban Embassy so that he could be expelled from his adopted home?
Did Martinez, in a fit of rage and desperation, attack the Guyanese woman he had secretly married, and only realise the trouble he was in after the deed was done?
Like I said, the motive is the missing piece of this jigsaw puzzle, and it’s a piece that may never be found.

If you have any information about this or any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown. Our numbers are 22-58465, 22-56458 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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