Female taxi driver’s murder, presidential guard’s death among new ‘cold cases’

Sep 23, 2019 News

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Who strangled taxi driver Jennifer Bipat and stole her car after dumping her body in a ditch?
How did robbers sneak past the dogs in Reginald Atherly’s yard, to enter his home and gun him down?
Was remigrant Godfrey Branch the victim of a land dispute?
Did robbers strangle Albouystown businesswoman Nalinie Persaud, or was the killer someone with a personal agenda?
And what’s the truth behind the strange demise of Presidential Guard Winston Cooper?
There are just five baffling cases that have been added to the list of cold cases.

REMIGRANT
Earlier this year, 73-year-old remigrant Godfrey Branch visited Kaieteur News.
Clutching a sheaf of documents, a worried Mr. Branch alleged that persons were trying to take his property at Lot 22 A Springlands Public Road, Corentyne.

On May 3, 2019, Mr. Branch’s female caretaker entered his home and found his bound and bloodied corpse on the floor.
He had been stabbed to the heart, chest, abdomen and the back of his head.
His house was ransacked and cash was also reportedly stolen from his home.
Branch’s home was equipped with surveillance cameras, but the killer (s) had removed the DVR with the CCTV footage.
Branch had an ongoing land dispute with a resident who was allegedly claiming ownership of his piece of land.
Shortly before his murder, the remigrant’s attorney had drafted a warning letter to someone who had trespassed on Mr. Branch’s property.
Police detained three suspects, but they were released and the case appears to be at a standstill.

GUNNED DOWN IN HIS HOME
On Saturday, July 27, Roxanne Crawford, the reputed wife of mechanic Reginald Atherly, known a ’Diesel Boss’, reportedly awoke to see two masked, “thin built” men with guns standing by her bed.
The intruders had reportedly entered the family’s Lot G 26 Guyhoc Park home, after removing panes from a window.
Ms. Crawford said she screamed. Atherly, her 44-year-old reputed husband, also scrambled up, and ran out of the bedroom.
The woman said she then woke her little daughter and told her to hide under the bed, and she too, ran outside.
It was then that she heard gunshots, and saw her husband struggling with one of the intruders near the front door.
According to Ms. Crawford, she then ran to retrieve a cutlass, but when she returned, she saw her husband lying motionless by the front door. The intruders had fled. There are reports that about $110,000 was missing.
Police later arrested several individuals but then released them.

In early August, Marlon Bradley, 34, was shot in the leg, during a confrontation with police at Cornhill Street, Stabroek.
Police allege that Bradley was a suspect in Reginald Atherly’s murder, and that he had shot at ranks who were attempting to arrest him.
They alleged that he was armed with an unlicensed .32 pistol and eight .32 rounds of ammunition. He was charged with unlawful possession of firearm and ammunition. No one has been charged with Atherley’s murder.

MURDER AT NALO’S
Fifty-six-year-old Nalinie Persaud operated Nalo’s Variety Shop at Lot 161 James Street, Albouystown. She lived there with her 59-year-old spouse, Mahendra Rampersaud, who had returned to Guyana after a year overseas.
Mahendra Rampersaud says that he and his reputed wife retired to bed at around midnight on Friday, May 2. At around 3:00 a.m., Rampersaud allegedly felt someone touch his leg. He awoke. Four masked men were in his bedroom. Two were pointing guns at him. He said that when he sat up, the men ‘lassoed’ him around the neck with a length of nylon rope.
He said that his wife, Nalinie Persaud, began to scream and the men pressed her face-down on the bed. However, according to Rampersaud, Nalinie Persaud “was still keeping noise.”
While two of the robbers subdued his wife, the other two dragged him to the bottom flat where their shop is located.
The intruders reportedly ordered him to switch off the lights. He said they began to gun-butt and kick him, while asking, “Where the money and the jewellery deh.”
Because his wife was the one who handled the finances, Rampersaud said he suggested to the bandits that, “maybe the money deh in the wardrobe.”
The robbers, he said, then gagged him, and strapped his eyes and limbs with duct tape. He then heard them leaving.
Rampersaud said eventually a customer arrived and freed him.
They then found his wife’s body on the bed, with a length of rope tied around her neck. A post mortem would later reveal she had suffered compound injuries to the neck and blunt trauma to the head.
He suggested that the killers had gained entry by prising out some loose boards from the southern wall in the bottom flat.
Investigators arrested three suspects, including a James Street resident, but eventually released them. They also questioned Mr. Rampersaud extensively, but have made no further arrests.

MURDERED MOM, VANISHED CAR
At around nine o’clock on the morning of Sunday, May 19, 2019, residents from a new housing scheme in La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, found a woman’s body lying face down in a trench, in a bushy and desolate area.
The victim was 48-year-old Jennifer Bipat.
She was a widow with two children, and resided at Samaroo Dam, Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara.
She had bought a Toyota Premio, PXX 4114, and began operating from a Goed Fortuin, West Coast Demerara taxi service.
It is alleged that on the afternoon of Saturday, May 18, at around 04:30 p.m., Mrs. Bipat received a call on her cellphone. The call was reportedly from someone who wished to hire her.
Mrs. Bipat allegedly told the dispatcher that she would not be returning to the base for the rest of the night. She then left. That was the last time she was seen alive.
A post mortem revealed that she had been strangled and struck on the head.
No one has been held and the stolen car has not been found.

BAFFLING DEATH OF A PRESIDENTIAL GUARD
Mandela Avenue in East Ruimveldt,
At around five o’clock on the morning of Monday, July 1, 2019, Presidential Guard, Constable Winston Cooper, stepped out his mother’s house, located at the corner of Mandela Avenue, East Ruimveldt.
He then walked north along Mandela Avenue, to begin another round of duty at the Presidential Guard Headquarters.
Shortly after, first responders from the Guyana Fire Service found Cooper lying injured and unconscious near the National Gymnasium.
He was admitted to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.
Still unconscious, Winston was discharged, but succumbed on Wednesday, August 14, 2019.
A postmortem report stated that death was due to “complications caused by head injuries.”
Police sources have said that the corpse bore injuries, which indicated that someone had struck Cooper from behind.
Security guards who had worked the night shifts at the gymnasium and nearby supermarket reportedly said they had neither seen nor heard anything amiss.
CCTV cameras in the area failed to yield any clues.
Cooper had reportedly told close associates that a woman, with whom he had broken off a relationship, had threatened him.
Police questioned the woman and her husband, but found nothing to implicate them.

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