Found dead by dog after ‘chat’ with Coast Guard

Nov 13, 2022 News

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The detective…

Who killed the Hogg Island farmer?

By Shervin Belgrave 

Kaieteur News – A barking dog on August, 7, 2022 disturbed the quietness of a peaceful Sunday morning at Hogg Island, Region Three.  The dog had rushed towards the Essequibo River and made the gruesome discovery of a dead man.

The dog’s strange behaviour had startled his owner, a Hogg Island resident, who lived close to the river. He thought that it was a visitor approaching, but did not hear the sound of any boat.

His curiosity led him down to the riverside and there he saw the dog barking at something floating in the river a fair distance away.

At first, he reportedly said to himself that it was only a dead fish, but then the dog jumped overboard, and acted as though he was trying to tell his owner to take a closer look.

The man was taken aback by the dog’s behaviour and zoomed in on the floating object, and soon realised that it was the body of a man.

He immediately ran home and told the rest of his family of what he saw and reportedly said “that is Romeo (Randolph)”.

Romeo Randolph, his full name, was a 35-year-old farmer and father of two from the Island whose boat was found drifting around 06:00hrs on August 5, miles away from his home.

His Common-Law wife, Devika Seepersaud and other family members had been looking for him since then, but their search came to a tragic and abrupt end after the dog discovered his floating remains in the Essequibo River.

Detectives from Region Three were called in to retrieve the floating corpse, and Seepersaud positively identified it to be that of her missing husband.

The grieving woman recounted that when she saw her husband’s remains, she knew immediately that someone had brutally murdered him.

“When Police bring he out the river he had a garbage bag wrapped around he head and an engine (outboard engine) de tie on pon he” Seepersaud recalled.

Police later divulged details to the press that Randolph was found with his mouth gagged and taped and his hands and feet bound with a yellow rope.

An autopsy on August 8 would later confirm that the Hogg Island farmer was murdered. The result showed that he had suffocated after being hit to the head with a heavy object.

This led to Police believe that he was tied up and suffocated with the garbage bag before being dumped overboard with an outboard engine strapped to him.

Three months have passed since the Hogg Island farmer was found brutally murdered and detectives are nowhere near cracking the case.

Disappearance after speaking with coast guard and phone that rang twice before going dead

As Detectives look for clues, his wife found out a few days ago that she is five and half months pregnant with Randolph’s third child.

She remains traumatised and is still clueless about her next move because Randolph was the sole breadwinner of their family.

Nevertheless, Seepersaud is on a quest for justice and is now beginning to question, “who killed Randolph after his brief chat with Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Coast Guards in the Essequibo River?”

Seepersaud lived at Tucshen, East Bank Essequibo (EBE)  with her relatives, while Randolph resided alone at his farmhouse at Hogg Island, Essequibo River to take care of his crops.

He farmed for a living and due to the recent floods and the Covid-19 pandemic, he suffered losses and things went downhill for him financially.

Instead of leaving  the farm behind, Randolph decided to stay and hope for better times and while he waited he began transporting passengers from the Island to Parika just to eke out a living so that his family could survive.

Despite the crisis forcing him to stay away from his family most of the time, the couple would visit each other regularly and communicate every day via phone calls.

Seepersaud remembered  receiving a call from him around 14:44hrs on August 4, the afternoon he went missing. Randolph reportedly told her that he was in his speedboat heading to a funeral taking place at Eastern End, Hogg Island.

He was almost arriving at his destination when he ended their conversation to meet some Coast Guard who reportedly called him and that was the last time Seepersaud heard from him.

“He de near reach the funeral and like he see them in the river (coast guard) and he tell me them calling he and he cutoff the phone”, Seepersaud said.

Randolph had become acquainted with the coast guards after he met them on Monday August 1 stranded in the river. They were out of fuel and he had helped them with some to return to Fort Island.

Detectives had questioned the coast guard and they confirmed chatting with Randolph briefly in the river on the afternoon he disappeared.

It is unclear if Randolph picked up anyone after leaving the coast guards but that was the last time he was seen alive.

Detectives and relatives were also unable to confirm if he had made it to the funeral he had mentioned to his wife because no-one recalled seeing him there.

The next day on August 5, another farmer on the Island spotted his boat drifting in the river and decided to alert his relatives.

Relatives wondered if he might have left his boat untied and it drifted away from the landing at his home, but according to Seepersaud, she became worried because Randolph was never a “careless guy”.

“He was never a person like that, he does always take care of his things them, especially he boat and engine, he does always say that he work hard for his things and does take good care of them”, she related.

Her fears grew even more, when she was told that Randolph was not at home.

“People de gone to tell he that he boat drifting and when them call out no one na answer” Seepersaud told The Waterfalls.

The woman brushed her fears aside with the belief that he probably left home to go and look for his boat.

She began calling his cell phone immediately and remembered it rangout a few times before it was switched off.

Seepersaud waited a while to see if he would return her calls, but he never did, and she decided to travel to the farm house later that afternoon.

Randolph was not home and nothing in the house was disturbed or moved.  It was just like how she left it after visiting him on Tuesday August 2, two days before his disappearance.

“Me and them chirren (Randolph’s two daughters, a 10-year-old and a 10-month old baby) – and he Mother-in-Law de gone by he and clean up the place” she said.

Realising something was amiss, they formed a search party and began searching for him- “we check all them bush corner along the river to see if was there holding on to be rescued cause we thought he might have had a minor accident”.

They searched  all day and night for the next two days until his floating remains were found by a dog.

It was only then that Seepersaud began to believe that not only was Randolph murdered after his brief meeting with the coastguards, but his killer or killers might have had his phone in their possession after he went missing and only switched it off after she called it repeatedly on August 5.

Meanwhile, as Police try to unravel the mystery behind the death of the Hogg Island Farmer, Seepersaud cries every night.

“I cry every night when I am alone because when I look at his daughters’ face they resemble him, and now is only recently I find out that I am pregnant with our third child”, Seepersaud told The Waterfalls as she broke down into tears.

She longs for justice and amidst the trauma, is praying daily that her husband’s case does not become an unsolved mystery.

“I want know who do this to he fuh pay fuh wa dem do. Them aint only tek he life but them snatch he away from his family, his mother, brother, sister, his children, his unborn child”,Seepersaud said as she weeped.

“Them tek bread out of he children mouth.  Who is gonna provide for them now? I have been unable to hold on to job since this thing happen, my daughter does cry too, she does ask Mammy wa we guh do this Christmas, her birthday and the baby birthday is in December and them Father de promise her that he would celebrate it cause last year I was in hospital getting baby (around that time) and we didn’t celebrate now this gon happen, sometimes I does feel like don’t living anymore, people does seh your children will keep you happy, but it hard,” continued the grieving woman.

Seepersaud currently survives on the little help she receives from her parents, and is clueless about her next move.  One thing, however, is certain: as long as there is life, she will continue her quest for justice.

If anyone is desirous of assisting in solving this murder case or may want to offer a little financial help to his wife and young children, they can make contact with Kaieteur News on telephone number, 225-8473.

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