‘Bartica massacre killer saved my life’ – hostage reveals

Jul 12, 2017 News

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–    “He even allowed me to keep my wedding ring” 

By Romila Boodram

With swollen feet and bruises about his body, 22-year-old Mathew Shivtahal, who was held

hostage by four high-profile prisoners on Sunday, recalled how he begged Bartica massacre suspect, Mark Royden Williams, to spare his life so that he could see his one-year-old son again.

“I say ‘Rasta, I got a one-year-old son, and I don’t want him to grow up without a father’ and he (Williams) said just because I tell him that, he will allow me to go,” Shivtahal recounted yesterday during an interview with this newspaper.

As much as the young man was scared of being with the four criminals, he tried his best to maintain his composure and even addressed the men as “Soulj” and “Soulja Man” as he pleaded with them to free him.

After seven hours of trekking through thick bushes and swimming across trenches with the escapees, who assisted him over the water, Shivtahal was allegedly given direction and was informed to run without looking back if he wanted to remain alive.

It was the Bartica massacre killer who allowed the young man to leave and go to be with his son.

Shivtahal was freed when the men were at the seven-door sluice in the backlands at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara (EBD). He was trekking through the bushes with Stafrei Hopkinson Alexander, ex-cop Uree Varswyck, Williams and an Amerindian man yet to be identified.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Shivtahal said he was planning to have a quiet Sunday evening with his wife, Rohanie Shivtahal and son at the Kitty seawall when a woman he had dropped off at Industry, East Coast Demerara, earlier in the day, called and asked that he return for her.

The young man left home at Kaneville, Grove, East Bank Demerara, telling his wife that he would be back to take them to the seawall.

After picking up the passengers and while on his way back to the East Bank, as fate would have it, he decided to drive through the city, since he thought it might have been too congested on Mandela Avenue.

“I come down Camp Street and I hear two gunshots and the police vehicle come and say go from here…I drive and before I turn on Bent Street, I stopped and was checking to see if any other vehicles coming, when I see the four men. They come and pull out the passengers,” he recalled.

The survivor recalled that upon realizing what was taking place, he quickly got out of the vehicle and told the men to take the car— a burgundy Toyota 212, PKK 4103, which was later found abandoned at North Ruimveldt.

“After I come out, one of them tell me ‘no, we taking you,’ before pushing me into the backseat with Alexander and the Amerindian man,” he recalled. Williams was sitting in the front passenger seat armed with a gun while Varswyck was driving the vehicle.

In the back seat, Alexander was armed with a gun too.

WE ARE NOT GOING TO KILL YOU

As the men drove towards Mandela Avenue with their hostage, they assured a nervous and trembling Shivtahal that they were not going to kill him. They told him that he just happened to be in “the wrong place at the wrong time”.

“When they tell me that, I wasn’t so scared, but I kept my eyes open and was looking at them because they are criminals and they could have hit me in the head at any time,” the young man recalled.

He added that while driving, the escapees said nothing to each other, and only had their eyes out for the police.

“They didn’t say anything to each other…the policeman (Varswyck) was driving.” As the car proceeded, the men asked the young man if he had cash on him, to which he responded in the negative.

“Rasta man take my watch and phone, and when he was going to take my wedding ring and I tell he that I only marry two months now and I beg he not to take it, he leave me with it,” the young man said.

He further added that the men drove to the backlands at North Ruimveldt where they abandoned the car.

KILL HIM?

Shivtahal said that as the men were preparing to run though the backlands at North Ruimveldt, Varswyck asked the other escapees what to do with him.

“Black bai (Varswyck) say ‘what we doing with this man, kill him?’ and dem rest say left de man… and Rasta man (Williams) tell me if I want live, come out the car and run with dem, so I do what they say and run with dem, because me ain’t want dead,” he said.

Just before they started running through the tracks, Shivtahal said that he left his slippers behind, next to his car, so that when the police found the vehicle, they would have seen it.

It was sometime around 17:40 hrs when the men started trekking through the bushes—it is suspected that they might have beem heading up the Linden/Soesdyke Highway.

“Dem men didn’t walk, dey run, and I had to run with them. We run down south on the dam and mek a turn up east and then head towards south. By 18:00 hrs, we meet the next dam which was full vegetation,” he noted.

The Amerindian escapee and Varswyck along with their hostage ran barefoot while Alexander and Williams wore boots.

Shivtahal said that the men rested for five minutes.

“They stop and rested and then we hear gunshots”— this was apparently when the police found the car and the victim’s slippers.

According to the young man, when they heard the gunshots, the escapees remained there for half an hour before they got up and started moving again.

ESCAPEES WERE TIGHT-LIPPED

Shivtahal said that just as when they were in the car, even when the men sat to relax, they said nothing to each other.

“They were quiet…just walking and running most of the time. Rasta man (Williams) is the leader and at one point, he, the police man and Alexander were speaking very quiet, and I didn’t try to bat my ears, because I didn’t want dey say I want know dey business.”

He added that for most of his time with the men, he was being escorted by the Amerindian prisoner.

Kaieteur News was informed that Alexander, Varswyck and Williams were in front, while their hostage was in the centre and the Amerindian man was at the back.

ASSISTED OVER THE WATER

As the men continued to trek through the backdam, when they reached the first trench, Shivtahal told them that he didn’t know to swim—hoping that the men would have allowed him to turn back as they went their way.

However, Alexander held him by the arm and swam across the trench with him. They helped him across another three trenches. Shivtahal confirmed that he does know to swim.

VICTIM FREED, GIVEN DIRECTION TO GO HOME

When the men reached to the main canal, Varswyck reportedly told the other escapees that it didn’t make sense keeping him (Shivtahal) alive since he was slowing them down.

“The policeman say, ‘leh we kill that man, it aint mek sense we keep he, cuz he can’t swim and he slowing we down’. That is when I start begging for my life. I turn to Rasta man, because he is the leader, and I tell he that I got a one-month-old son and I don’t want him to grow up without a father,” the victim recounted.

He further added that after telling Williams about his son, the man turned to him and said, “What you just tell me, I gone leh you go.”

According to Shivtahal, Williams asked him where he was living, and when he said in Industry, East Coast Demerara—the man directed him to head straight to the Conversancy Dam then make a right turn where he would then see four swamps.

“He said cross over the bridge and keep walking straight and I will see a bridge. He told me to watch east, and I will see the light and I should follow it,” the father of one said.

He further noted that after he was given the direction, Williams then told him to keep running and if he looked back, they would kill him.

“When he said that, I started running and I didn’t turn back to see which direction they went because I didn’t want to die, so I run and run.”

HUNGRY, THIRSTY

From the Sunday afternoon, the young man had nothing to eat. He was hungry, thirsty and tired having run through the bush with the men.

“It had black water but because the place swampy, the water was dirty, so I only took a couple sips, but I didn’t see dem men drink anything. They just keep moving,” he noted.

FINALLY RESCUED

Shivtahal said that he walked for hours. He remembers stopping only once to rest for 10 minutes before he got up and continued his journey.

“I walked and reach Annandale backdam and I see a shop. When I went there, some people went drinking and it had a policeman and I asked for a call and they asked me who I want call, because of how I was looking, my whole skin had mud, so I tell them that I am the boy that got kidnap,” Shivtahal revealed.

He said that the policeman took him to Vigilance Police Station where he was given water and food and reunited with his family.

HAPPY TO BE ALIVE

Shivtahal yesterday counted his blessings for being allowed a second chance to be with his family. He said that had it not been for Mark Royden Williams, the Bartica massacre killer, he would not have been alive today.

“I really had to beg for him to save me. All the time I was thinking about my son,” he said.

Meanwhile, the manhunt continues for the escapees.

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