A recipe for bloody murder

Apr 01, 2018 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

Jadesh Dass

By Michael Jordan

Let’s get a 31-year-old widower. Mix him with a lonely, love-struck married woman, add in a wealthy and jealous husband, and what do you get? You get a recipe for bloody murder.
Sounds like a silly riddle? It wouldn’t sound so silly to some folks at Chelsea Park, Mahaica. And it certainly wouldn’t sound so foolish to old Sookranie Dass.
There are people from that village who came right up to her and said that this is how her son got himself killed. Those folks have named names of men that Ms. Dass knew for most of her life.
At least, that is what elderly Ms. Dass said; and if the stories are true, her son was biting the hand that fed him, and that hand decided to bite back.
At around the time this story begins, Jadesh Dass had been working for about a year with a businessman who owned several trucks. At around 1.00 a.m. on Tuesday April 17, 2012, the truck driver left his mother’s Chelsea Park, Mahaica home on his bicycle to pick up a truck from his boss’s home. He then drove along the Mahaica New Road with the intention of heading to a sand pit along the Soesdyke/ Linden highway.
An hour later, Sookranie Dass was awakened by someone calling at her gate. The visitor was one of the truck drivers who worked with her son, and he had brought troubling news. The driver said that he had passed Jadesh’s truck on the Mahaica New Road, near Unity. The truck was parked with the hazard lights on, and the man assumed that Jadesh had gone into the bushes to relieve himself.
According to the man, he had become worried after realising that the vehicle was still motionless and he decided to turn back to check on his colleague. After calling repeatedly and getting no answer, the driver eventually found Jadesh’s cell phone.
On hearing this, Mrs. Dass and other relatives set off to search for the missing truck driver. They scoured the area near the parked truck; calling his name but getting no answer. Eventually, at around 2.00 a.m., they found Jadesh Dass’s body on the parapet near a trench. At first, police surmised that someone had clubbed him in the head with such force that bits of his skull were left on the parapet. But a post mortem revealed that Dass had been shot twice at close range with a handgun. One of the bullets entered near his right eye.
Almost immediately, detectives ruled out robbery. The slain man’s wallet was still in his pocket and $20,000 was in the truck.
Some relatives suggested that Dass must have known his killer for him to have stopped his truck where he did and emerge from his vehicle.
So who had killed Jadesh Dass after making him stop on the desolate, unlit road?
On the very day of Dass’s murder, detectives began to get hints as to who might have wanted him dead. Rumours were circulating that Dass, a widower, was having an affair with the wife of one of the men connected to the trucking company where he was employed. It was suggested that the jilted husband and others had carried out the attack.
Dass’s mother also said that her son had confided in an in-law about the affair. It was suggested that the married woman had made advances to her son. Dass’s mother said she was also told that the woman would sometimes contact her son by telephone and that she had given him $100,000 a few days before his death. Ms. Dass says that she knew the alleged lover, and she and the woman had lived “like family.” All that changed after the murder and subsequent investigation.
According to Ms. Dass, she had sensed that her son was worried about something. He had not confided in her, but had reportedly told others that someone had threatened him.
Acting on these rumours, detectives detained three men from the trucking firm. They questioned them, swabbed their hands for traces of gunpowder— and got nowhere. Police also questioned the slain driver’s alleged lover. She denied having an affair with Dass. They eventually released the three men on $100,000 bail each.
However, in early July 2016, two Chelsea Park residents were charged with Dass’s murder.

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 addresses: mjdragon@hotmail.com or kamarangnight@gmail.com

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