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Burnt body in car trunk…Mom begs cops to solve seven-year-old mystery
– “I think I know who killed my son, now the police have to tell me if they did it”
By: Romila Boodram
Almost seven years after the burnt body of 36-year-old Roy Mitchell Persaud was found in the trunk of his car at Palmyra, Canje, his mother says she believes she knows who killed her son and is now begging investigators to reopen the case which she says has gone cold.
But this time, Shira Tahal only wants ranks from the Guyana Police Force (GPF)’s Major Crimes Unit to look at her son’s case and take her statement, since she has lost confidence in the detectives who were probing his death which occurred on May 09, 2010.
While hinting of a potential cover-up, Tahal said that one of the three young men, who may have played a role in her son’s death, is related to a senior police official stationed in Berbice.
The woman said that for seven years, she and Persaud’s two children, were forced to look at the suspects, who continue with their lives as if nothing had happened.
Roy Mitchell Persaud’s body, burned beyond recognition, was discovered in his car trunk at Palmyra, Canje, two days after he left his Lot 36 Smythfield, New Amsterdam home to ply his trade as a taxi driver.
Persaud’s mother, Shira Tahal
Dead: Roy Mitchell Persaud
“He came from Trinidad to fix his children’s passports and during the time, he was working in the nights and taking care of his children during the day,” his mother said.
She explained that after her son failed to return home the Friday night (May 07, 2010), she got worried and started making calls the following day.
“I went and look around and asked people but no one saw him and the Sunday, I get a call that a car was found burnt and I went to the station and informed the police and they told me that they knew,” the woman said, while adding that it was Mother’s Day.
According to Tahal, relatives were able to identify the vehicle as the one Persaud was driving. The chassis number on the burnt car also matched the taxi-driver’s vehicle.
Scraps of the blue denim jeans, the father of two was wearing when he left home, were also found.
Police arrested a man, whose mother is a senior police official, but he was subsequently released. This individual and two other young men were allegedly the last persons seen entering Persaud’s car.
Shira Tahal said that after her son was laid to rest, she received information about her son’s death from several persons, but never went to the police station, because of the way she was treated in the initial stage of the probe.
The burnt car in which Roy Mitchell Persaud’s body was recovered
According to the woman, taxi drivers who were working at the New Amsterdam car park the night her son disappeared saw the three young men entering Persaud’s car. He never returned to the park when he left with them.
A friend of Persaud’s reportedly said that he had seen three strange men in the victim’s car, driving up the one-way.
“The guy said that he see the car driving on the wrong side of the road and when he watch in the vehicle, he see three men and he didn’t see my son,” Tahal said.
She also indicated that they had received information that the men may have killed Persaud for two artificial gold chains he was wearing at the time.
Rumour has it that Persaud was asked to transport the men to an isolated area where the passenger sitting behind the driver strangled him. His body was then placed in the truck of the vehicle and taken to another area where the car was set on fire.
Residents in the area said that they noticed a fire the Saturday night and thought it was garbage burning.
Tahal believes that if investigators question all the eyewitnesses, they can get somewhere with the case.
“I believe there is a God and I think if the case lands in the right hands there will be justice for my son. I heard one of the boys was involved in an accident and break up his hands and feet and another one almost tripped (had a mental breakdown).”
Once the case is reopened, Tahal said that she is convinced that charges will follow.
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