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Digicel, GTT phone continue to stall teacher Kescia Branche’s murder probe
Charged: Matthew Munroe, and Dead: Kescia Branche
Four months after a taxi driver was charged and remanded to prison for the murder of 22-year-old teacher, Kescia Branche, the prosecution file is still incomplete. This is stalling the commencement of the Preliminary Inquiry (PI) into the matter.
Forty-seven-year-old Matthew Munroe, of Diamond Housing Scheme, was not required to plead to the indictable charge which alleged that on November 7 last, at Georgetown, he murdered Kescia Branche.
On Thursday when the matter was called in Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman’s courtroom, Police Prosecutor Shawn Gonsalves told the court that the police investigation into the murder is still incomplete. He added that police ranks are still to get the telephone records between the taxi driver and the now dead teacher from Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) and Digicel.
Last December, when the matter was first called in Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan’s courtroom, the accused attorney, George Thomas, had told the court that his client was at no time physically present in Georgetown. His cell phone, which the police have, will show that he was communicating with Branche, but was nowhere near her, he said.
Munroe was detained after returning from an overseas vacation. He reportedly travelled “on vacation” to the US, around the same time that Branch was found unconscious in Louisa Row.
Police impounded his vehicle, which had sustained damage, and had a missing bumper.
Munroe reportedly told police that he had driven into a pothole on the East Coast of Demerara. He was reportedly unable to show police the location.
The 22-year-old Branche was found badly battered on November 5, last. She succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) without regaining consciousness.
According to reports, her injuries appeared to be consistent with those inflicted by the impact of a vehicle. A post mortem revealed that she succumbed to brain haemorrhage, caused by blunt trauma to the head.
Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman instructed Munroe to make his next court appearance on March 27.
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