One arrested as police hunt wounded workmate

Apr 16, 2021 News

…Murder of youth found floating in creek

Kaieteur News – It could be that the youth whose remains were found last week Thursday floating in the Arakaka River, Region One, was murdered by one of his workmates who has reportedly gone into hiding. That workmate, according to sources, was seen with a fresh wound to his face mere hours after Avinash Fernandes, 19, had disappeared around 21:30 hrs. on Monday April 5.

Strangled to death in Arakaka, Avinash Fernandes.

As Region One ranks continue to hunt for the wounded workmate, they have arrested another suspect who they believe might have also been involved in Avinash’s murder.
Relatives related that in late November 2020, Fernandes and his elder brother had left their home in Mabaruma and travelled to Arakaka. They had gone there to work in a mine located at 13 Miles, Arakaka, with dredge owner identified as Keith Alphonso.
Kaieteur News learnt that Fernandes and his brother had planned to return to their home in Mabaruma for the recent Easter holidays.
On Monday April 5, they reportedly left the backdam along with the other workmates to head for the Arakaka Landing. Their plan, according Fernandes’ brother, was to catch a vehicle to Port Kaituma and then a boat from there to Mabaruma.
However, they were forced to change plans after they arrived late that evening at the landing and could not locate any transportation. They reportedly stopped at a shop where eyewitnesses recounted that Fernandes was seen drinking with his workmates.
His brother claimed that he had left the shop in search of a nearby place where he and Fernandes would spend the night until the following morning. When he returned to the shop some 55 minutes later to pick-up Fernandes, it was closed.
The brother said he was told by Alphonso, the dredge owner, that there was fight among the workmen. He continued that he paid no attention to that detail but had inquired about where Fernandes had gone. No one was able to answer him, recounted the brother, and he began searching for Fernandes that very night.
After hours of searching, he decided to walk back to their camp in the mine to see if Fernandes might have returned there to sleep. The brother said that when he arrived he had only met one of his workmates.
That individual, he recalled had a fresh wound to his face and appeared as though he was involved in a fight. The brother described that “the wound looked like it might have been inflicted from a lash to the face with a wood.”
He reportedly told the workmate that Fernandes was missing and asked him if he had seen him.
The man, related the brother, said no and so he left the campsite and returned to the Arakaka Landing, where he filed a missing person’s report with police and continued his search for Fernandes. Three days later around 05:00 hrs. on Thursday April 8, Fernandes’ decomposing remains were found floating in the Arakaka River.
An autopsy later revealed that Fernandes was strangled to death. The workmate has since disappeared from the area.

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