The chef’s mystery lady

Feb 03, 2020 News

….and other cold cases that have followed the police into 2020

The house where Andre Gordon was strangled.

On the night of Saturday, September14, 2019, Andre Gordon, 51, invited a woman into the Station Street, Kitty house in which he was staying.
A U-S based chef, Gordon, known as ‘Blackie’, had reportedly come to Guyana to train locals interested pursuing a similar vocation.
But the next day, a friend visited the house and found husband and father lying dead on the kitchen floor.
He was naked and his wallet and short pants were in a nearby chair.
A postmortem would later reveal that someone had manually strangled Gordon from behind.
While detectives found no evidence of a break-in, it was believed that the killer or killers carted off cash and other valuables.
Examining CCTV recordings in the area, detective saw that Gordon and a woman, suspected to be a foreign national, had entered the house at around 20.00 hrs on Saturday, September 14.
The woman was reportedly seen leaving at around 08.00 hrs the following day.
According to reports, CCTV footage also showed a friend of Gordon’s friend going to the premises on Saturday morning.
He reportedly called for Gordon, but left without entering the house after getting no answer.
Police detained the friend, who had reportedly known Gordon since the two sere children.
However, investigators eventually released him after finding nothing to incriminating the friend.
Police had said they were seeking to enhance the video footage in a bid to identify individuals who were seen leaving the scene.
But four months later, they have still not located Gordon’s killer, or the mystery woman who he invited into his apartment.
Gordon’s murder is just one of the stack of unsolved cases that have followed the police into this new year.
WHERE IS MICHAEL BANFUS?
Take the case of Michael Banfus.
The 26-year-old Banfus has been employed at the Forestry Commission as a woodworking technician for some five years.
He had rented a Lot 10 First Street, Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara apartment, which he shared with another young man.
Banfs was reportedly last seen at his apartment on Saturday, September 21, 2019. He was allegedly in the company of a male Berbice resident, who often visited the apartment.
Banfus, accompanied by the same individual, reported then visited the Sophia Exhibition Site, where the 2019 Indigenous Heritage Month celebrations were being held.
The two men were reportedly later seen at a cricket club, located on Carifesta Avenue, Georgetown. Banfus has not been seen since.
A friend said that he attempted to tried to reach Banfus via cell phone after the forestry employee failed to return to his apartment. He eventually received a text message that was sent from Banfus’ phone. The message indicated that Banfus was in Linden and was staying at a friend for two weeks.
But the individual who was receiving the texts said that he eventually suspected that the messages were being sent by someone who was pretending to be Banfus.
“Certain things that I asked, he (the person sending the messages) did not answer correctly,” the friend said.
According to the friend, he urged ‘Banfus’, via text message, to contact his family to reassure them that he was alright. ‘Banfus’ reportedly never responded.
After he failed to turn up, Forestry officials contacted the police.
Ranks and colleagues who checked the Cummings Lodge, East Coast apartment where Banfus resided found his belongings, including his passport, intact.
A few days later, relatives received the disturbing news that the Berbice resident, with whom Banfus was last seen, had hanged himself.
So what may have happened to Michael Banfus, and who may have had a reason for causing him harm?
A MURDERED REMIGRANT
In early 2019, 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.
…AND A GUNNED DOWN MECHANIC
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.
But to date, no one has been charged with Atherley’s murder.
WHO KILLED ‘NALO?’
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.
DEATH OF A PRESIDENTIAL GUARD
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.
Police officials at CID Headquarters have repeatedly assured that they are still working on these cases.
They appear to be however, overwhelmed by other cold cases that have preceded these.