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Man wanted for Levoy Taljit’s murder arrested
11 years after…
Kaieteur News – More than 11 years after the mysterious disappearance and murder of Levoy Taljit, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) has announced the arrest of a man they had issued a wanted bulletin for in 2022 in connection with the crime.
Levoy Taljit
In April of 2022, the police issued a wanted bulletin for Ryvan Shervin Francis, 46, of Lot 4B Sharma Street, Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara, in relation to the murder of Taljit, a former employee of the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) which took place sometime between December 23 and 24, 2012. Recently, detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters, acting on information, went to Soesdyke Highway and arrested Francis.
According to the police, during an interview Francis said that he knew Taljit and said that they became friends in 2011. He also disclosed that Taljit would usually visit his Soesdyke home.
Kaieteur News was informed that the police have a witness who informed them that Francis reportedly confessed to her that he strangled Taljit in his own car and then buried his body. The witness related to the police that on December 23, 2012 Francis handed her a bank card and told her to go to Scotiabank in Georgetown to withdraw money. The woman withdrew $60,000 from the account, she split the money with another person before she returned to Soesdyke and gave Francis $10,000.
Wanted for Taljit’s murder, Ryvan Shervin Francis.
Notably, the woman said that a few days later she found out via social media that Taljit, who she saw with Francis on the night of 23rd December 2012, was missing. This led her to asking Francis about Taljit and that was when he allegedly confessed to her that he killed Taljit at Ideal Road, Soesdyke, before burying his body.
Taljit was 25-years-old when he went missing and was last seen leaving his home in his Toyota Raum motorcar, PNN 8315 around 14:00 hours on December 23, 2012. He was dressed in a burgundy tee-shirt and faded blue jeans. After he failed to return home a missing person’s report was filed and a search was launched. Five days later on December 28, his car was found abandoned in the Yarrowkabra backlands along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway but there was no sign of Taljit.
This publication had reported that Francis is the same man that police had detained on January 4, 2013 just 10 days after Taljit had disappeared. He was 32-year-old at the time and police were able to locate him tracing Taljit’s cellphone.
When the car was located, investigators were able to work out that the car had been taken there days before it was found. It did not take them long to make a breakthrough by locating Taljit’s phone. They found that Francis was using his phone and had placed a new sim card in it but police were still able to track him down. He was detained and while in custody he made some startling claims.
He admitted that he was the one that had taken Taljit’s car to the location where it was found, but had told police that he took it there at the behest of the missing man. Francis even handed over the missing man’s bank card and driver’s licence to police. The suspect had assured the investigators too, that there was nothing to worry about because Taljit was alive and well and had contacted him from Paramaribo Suriname, but later said that it was a lie. He however did say that Taljit was his friend and they had communicated extensively via an internet site.
Taljit’s car that was found abandoned at Yarrowkabra
Police had even arrested Francis’ relatives too but in the end, they had to let them go because there was not enough evidence to pin Francis to Taljit’s disappearance. The case went cold for years, until detectives made a breakthrough back in 2022, which led them to believe that Taljit was murdered by Francis and issued a bulletin for him.
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