The boys who never came home

Mar 12, 2017 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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– two unsolved murders still haunt these Sophia families

One boy was running an errand for his mother. The other was returning home from a game of cricket.

But these lads never made it home. They were later found dead: sodomised and dumped in trenches.
Seven-year-old Dacwaun Sutherland and 13-year-old Letroy Harris both lived in Sophia and their killers have never been caught.
The two unsolved cases have been thrust back in the limelight following the murder of nine-year-old Shaquan Gittens, who was abducted, bound, sodomised and dumped in a trench in the South Ruimveldt backlands in April, 2015.
His alleged killer has been charged, but the families of Dacwaun Sutherland and Letroy Harris have never gotten such closure.
Sophia residents who knew Zon Parks, a security guard, said that she apparently never let her only child, Dacwaun, out of her sight.
But, as one woman would later say, there is always an unguarded moment. That unguarded moment came at around 13:30 hrs on Wednesday, June 30, 2010, when the seven-year-old visited his mom’s worksite, and she sent him home alone with some perishables that she had bought at Stabroek Market.
She also instructed him to return.
When night fell and he failed to return, Ms. Park made a report at the Turkeyen Police Station, while she continued her search into the night.
She resumed her search the following day and while walking through ‘B’ Field, Sophia, she heard some residents saying that a boy’s body was in a trench. She immediately headed for the location.
There she saw her son, who had left home wearing a pair of camouflage trousers and a white vest, lying in a canal and clad only his briefs. A post mortem revealed that he was sodomised and apparently submerged in the canal until he drowned. Death was due to drowning compounded by compression injury to the neck.

Some residents recalled seeing the child at around 17:00 hours on the day that he had disappeared. One woman said that she saw the boy around 13:30 hours carrying two water bottles.
Another woman said she noticed the same bottles floating in the canal at around 16.00 hrs that day.
Two days later, police detained a 24-year-old Sophia man who lived near the murder scene, after reports surfaced that the child was last seen in his company.
But police were unable to link the suspect to Dacwaun Sutherland’s death. He was released on $20,000 station bail. Police also questioned five Sophia youths about Sutherland’s death, but got nowhere.
At the time, Zon Park was adamant that her child was slain in broad daylight. She also believed that a man in her community held the answers to her son’s death.She still does.
She had claimed that previous allegations of sexual molestation of young boys had been made against the individual, who lived a short distance from the murder scene.
Ms. Park’s theory was that the killer concealed her son in his house and then disposed of his remains when night fell.
According to Ms. Park, police had detained the suspect and searched his home. He was subsequently released with instructions that he report to the police daily.
”Someone had to see something. I am asking anyone with information to come forward because I need justice. I still hope that the truth will be revealed.”
Zon Park told me last Saturday that she is still waiting for that answer.
But at another home in A Field, Sophia, the mother of another murdered boy seems resigned to the fact that she would never have justice for her boy’s death, almost eleven years ago.
Thirteen-year-old Letroy Hinds-Harris loved cricket. His mother, Regina Hinds, recalled that the St. Winefride’s High student was selected to represent that his team in Trinidad and Tobago.
”He was trying to put in a little extra work to further impress the coach. Every day from school he would meet up with the team and practice before he went home,” Mrs. Hinds said.
But on October 31, 2006, the 13-year-old did not return home from practice. His mother thought that he had decided to spend the night at his sister’s residence, since he would sometimes stay there.
But when she called the following day, the sister revealed that Letroy wasn’t there. A search was subsequently carried out and a missing person’s report was made.
”All the time we searching and I decided to go by his friends ( who live a stone’s throw from Harris’ home) and when I asked them, the three boys said that they didn’t see my son but I know my son doesn’t go to practice without them.”
But just as she was about to leave, the father of the three boys came outside and said her son had visited his home, but had left to go to practice with his sons.
”When he said that, the boys then said that they went practice together but they had left him at the ground,” the mother of two said.
For two days, relatives and friends searched futilely for the teen.
On the third day, the lad’s battered and naked body was found in a Thomas Road canal, near the National Park. His clothes were also found in the trench. A post mortem examination revealed that he was beaten and sodomized. His neck was also broken.
Police questioned several people, including the slain lad’s coach, but never came close to solving his murder.
Mrs. Hinds believes she knows who killed her son. She still believes her suspicions can be proven with a little hard work from the police.
But tired of getting no answers, Hinds said that she stopped enquiring into her son’s case.
”You have to have money to go after these things because the police not helping…when I talked to one policeman (back then) he said that they had over 200 unsolved murders and I will have to wait,” a still traumatized Hinds recalled.
Even after eleven years, she is still hoping that one day the police will find her son’s killers.
The woman said that she was struck by the similarities between the recent murder of nine-year-old Shaquan Gittens and her boy.
”It was just like my son. He went missing and then his body was found. The only difference was that my son’s case was never solved and his penis was not severed.”
She’s tried to move on, but still thinks about how she tragically lost her son in 2006.

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 offices. Our numbers are 22-58465, 22-58473 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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