Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 01, 2013 News
Who murdered 12-year-old Joshua Chunilall near his parents’ Corentyne farm last August? Did a woman mastermind the killing of a Sophia mechanic? And is there a common link behind the execution-style killings of Ricardo Rodrigues
and several others last year?
The year 2012 has left police with yet another spate of unsolved murders and a resurgence of suspected drug-related executions.
On March 16, Leonard Mahadeo, 37, of Diamond, New Housing Scheme was drinking in the Soca Paradise Sports Bar located at Old Road Eccles, East Bank Demerara, when two gunmen walked in and riddled him with bullets. They then calmly left the scene. Mahadeo had survived a similar attempt on his life five years ago.
He was said to have been a significant player in the local drug underworld. But police remain baffled as to who killed him and why.
In June, Pest Control Plus owner Mohamed Baksh was sitting in Flava’s Grill, a Thomas Street business place, when a car stopped near the premises.
A gunman then entered the restaurant and shot Baksh twice in the head. He succumbed the following day at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
Investigators had received word that Baksh, who survived a similar execution attempt in 2008, had an ongoing financial dispute with a local businessman.
Also in March, Giovani Leitch, 21, of Tucville was gunned down aback of the Plaisance Market. On April 30, Renie Williams, a 25-year-old taxi driver and former policeman, was sitting with his wife in a car outside their King Edward Street, Albouystown home when a black-clothed man with a 9mm pistol shot him twice in the back, killing him almost instantly.
Four days later, death came just as swiftly for Albouystown resident, Aman Lalchand, called ‘Randy’. The 31-year-old career criminal was smoking a marijuana joint in a poorly lit Sussex Street area, when the occupants of a white car pumped several gunshots into his body.
Close associates said that Lalchand was targeted for execution by an individual who reportedly collected a $1M down-payment to carry out the hit.
In late August, the bullet-riddled body of 25-year-old taxi driver, Sean De Freitas Sookdeo, was discovered on Thomas Lands, near the National Park.
Sookdeo’s body bore gunshot wounds to the head, hands and abdomen and there were signs that he was also tortured.
On October 15, Ricardo Rodrigues, a close associate of convicted drug dealer Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan, was riddled with bullets from high-powered rifles as he sat at a table at the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club compound on Albert Street.
Jean Le Blanc, a Canadian, was also wounded and succumbed several days later. Rodrigues is said to have been linked to a huge arms cache that was intercepted at Lethem.
Fifteen days after Rodrigues’s execution, his associate, Marlon Osborne, aka Marlon Scott and ‘Trini’, was gunned down in a brazen daylight onslaught while sitting in a vehicle near the junction of Peter Rose and Laluni Streets, Queenstown, Last year was also marred by a spate of baffling murders.
In January, 40-year-old taxi driver Mark Small was found slumped in his car in a nearby canal, at Goodverwagting, Market Street, East Coast Demerara, with several stab wounds about the body.
The following month, 33-year-old mechanic Marlon Welcome died shortly after he was found lying in his ‘A’ Field Sophia residence.
An autopsy revealed that he had been shot at close range in the head. Some of the slain man’s associates suggested that a woman had planned the killing and that the motive was robbery.
In May, 43-year-old gold miner Bryan Dickson, also known as ‘Son Son’ and ‘Peck’ of East Street, Cummingsburg, was found gagged and lying on his back in his bedroom with over 20 stab wounds about the body. A pair of scissors found nearby was presumed to be the murder weapon. There was no sign of forced entry to the residence.
Two April murders, which had suspected links to triangular love affairs are also puzzling detectives. One of the victims was Kitty taxi driver, Balram Jadoonauth, who was shot dead while heading to his parents’ home.
Police suspect that the 24-year-old was slain because of a relationship that he was having with a married woman.
Also in April, someone shot truck driver, Jadesh Dass, in the head while he was driving on the desolate Mahaica Public Road in the wee hours of the morning.
Investigators have ruled out robbery as a motive since the cash that Dass was carrying was still intact.
And in one of the most recent cases, residents of Logwood, Enmore, awoke in May to the shocking discovery of the bound body of Diamond taxi driver Rajendra Puran lying in a drain in their East Coast Demerara community.
Puran’s hands were bound with a leather belt while his feet were tied together with a piece of white cord.
Puran’s vest was tightly wrapped around his neck, while his jersey was pulled over his face as if the killers wanted to prevent him from seeing where they were taking him.
A post mortem later revealed that Puran died from strangulation.
Puran, who lived approximately 23 miles away, at Grove New Scheme, East Bank Demerara, is believed to be a victim of a carjacking from outside his operating base at the entrance to the Diamond New (Housing) Scheme, since his white Toyota Raum has also vanished.
Police are still to apprehend the sadistic killer(s) responsible for the rape and murder of Mahaicony housewife Allinva Andrews in mid-April. The 46-year-old woman’s decomposing body was found at Moraikobe, Mahaicony River.
A post mortem revealed that she was manually strangled. Andrews’s killers had also rammed a 12-inch twig into the woman’s privates.
The July murder of 45-year-old Stabroek Market businessman Frank Persaud appears to be that of a robbery that got out of hand. Persaud was found gagged and bound in a bond at his Bel Air Village, East Coast Demerara home shortly after he was attacked by three men who claimed to be customs officers. Reports indicated that the bandits had tried to revive their victim after observing that he was motionless.
In late August, the badly battered and bruised body of 12-year-old Joshua Chunilall of Letter Kenny, Corentyne, was discovered around 13:30 hrs yesterday in a fish pond near his parents’ farm at John’s Village, Port Mourant.
A postmortem revealed that the lad had mud in his lungs. There are suggestions that he was held face down in the pond.
The murder last December of Anandale Market Road businessman, Kamal Ramsahoye, is suspected by some detectives to have been staged to look like a robbery.
The businessman, who lived alone, was found dead in his bottom flat. He had been stabbed at least ten times.
Even more baffling is the murder of 76-year-old Saheed Hamid. Someone blasted the elderly man in the chest with a shotgun in early December outside his Maida farm, Corentyne home.
It is alleged that Hamid, called “Uncle Tulu”, was shot after exiting his back door to go to a latrine.
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