Latest update February 13th, 2025 8:56 AM
Latest News
- Despite not paying taxes, Exxon boss says profit sharing and royalty is same as giving Guyana tax
- ExxonMobil makes application for 8th oil project
- After Putin call, Trump says negotiations to end Ukraine war will start ‘immediately’
- Guyana captured by corrupt business and political elites
- First ever mammogram machine commissioned at Linden Hospital
Poor storage of evidence hampers police investigations
– “Sometimes when you go back for the weed, the rats gone with it or they eat out the blood-stained jersey”
There is with no doubt that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) has been making significant progress in solving crimes, involving cases which had gone cold with the most famous being the six-year-old Babita Sarjou mystery.
But they are doing so while facing challenges that are not experienced by their counterparts in more developed nations.
First, finding evidence which was taken from crime scenes might be a bit difficult for investigators, especially when years have passed and it has become a cold case.
This is mainly because the Force lacks proper storage facilities for the storing of physical evidence.
Evidence such as a hammer or a knife or even a blood-stained jersey is stored at police stations across the country, as opposed to having one facility to store all these items.
At the Force’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) there is a room where some evidence is stored.
The police stations also have no special room for the storage of these items. “Usually, there is a locker and the items go in there or they are placed in a box at the corner of the room,” a source explained.
“If someone is murdered in Essequibo, then the evidence will be at the police station there. If someone is killed in Parika, then the evidence and everything else that was taken from the scene will be at the Parika Police Station.”
Kaieteur News was informed that while items from crime scenes are available, the location and place of storage might be inadequate.
“We have the evidence, you just have to look. And sometimes when you go back for (let’s say) weed, the rats gone with it, or they eat out the blood-stained jersey or the part that had the blood,” the source said.
He explained that once evidence is collected from a crime scene, the rank who is dealing with that case will put his initials on the item. This evidence will then be passed onto another individual at the police station who would also place his initials on the item.
“Once this is done, the evidence is stored. Let’s say, that case becomes a cold case and eight years from now, we have to relocate the items, then it might be a problem. It might take some time to find it and then the condition it will be in would be an issue.”
It is unclear if this is the reason why investigators have failed to reach out to the relatives of Basmattie Anantram who went missing from her Seawell, Corentyne home on June 8, 2011.
Shortly after the woman went missing, the skeletal remains of a female was found a short distance from her home and DNA samples were taken from Anantram’s relatives.
This newspaper was informed that, in this case, the police cannot locate Anantram’s file and the DNA result. The remains that were found also reportedly cannot be located.
Meanwhile, research done has indicated that most evidence is collected in paper containers such as packets, envelopes and bags.
Any items which may cross contaminate each other must be packed separately. The containers should be closed and secured to prevent the mixture of evidence during transportation.
Each container should have the collecting person’s initials, the date and time it was collected, a complete description of the evidence and where it was found.
The types of evidence encountered at crime scenes include fingerprints, bite marks, broken finger nails, blood and body fluids, hair, fibers and knives, guns among others.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
An Open Letter to the election observer missions
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News-Later this year, you will arrive in Guyana as protectors of the integrity of our democracy.... more
OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus
Antiguan Barbudan Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The upcoming election... more
Weekend Cartoon
