Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 31, 2013 News
The reluctance of persons to provide information appears to have condemned at least two recent murders on the East Coast of Demerara to the cold case files.
Three brutal murders have been recorded in that district between the month of May and present, and the police have so far been unable to make a breakthrough in any of them.
The recent unsolved cases go back to the brutal double-murder of Cambio dealer Totoram Mootoo and his wife Basmattie, who were killed in their posh Turkeyen home on May 10. They also include the June murders of Supply, Mahaica farmer Omadat Persaud and South Better Hope mason Tyrone Budhu.
When these are added to the April killing of 89-year-old Millicent Adrianna Prince Cummings, the situation is worrying.
In the case of the Cambio dealer’s murder, investigators had been working on several theories, including the involvement of close relatives. However, these theories turned up zero clues for detectives to progress further than they had reached in their investigations.
Investigators believe that Mootoo, 54, and his 48-year-old wife were killed by close associates since from all indications the killers were guests at their home. There are suggestions that Mootoo had a confrontation with his killers before he and his wife were taken to their bedroom, where their hands were duct- taped behind their backs.
Further information stated a 20-pound gas cylinder was reportedly placed in the bedroom and shot at with a high powered rifle, causing a hole in the wall and soon after the house was in flames.
What was left of the couple’s bodies was discovered the following morning. They were in a hugging position.
Neighbours heard sounds believed to be those of gunshots, followed by a loud explosion.
“This one looks like it done get cold already,” a source close to the investigations told this newspaper.
He said that unless persons come forward with concrete information, there is not much physical evidence that investigators can rely on in their hope to solve the case.
“The killers were smart; they destroyed all the evidence in that fire,” the source said.
Even as investigators were dealing with that murder, their attention was shifted to the slaying of Tyrone Budhu, one month later.
The 31-year-old Better Hope, East Coast Demerara man was gunned down as he tried to flee from two bandits who had attacked him and his girlfriend near the Vryheid’s Lust seawall. Budhu received a fatal bullet to his left side chest as he and his girlfriend were heading home after leaving a Graham Street, Plaisance drinking spot.
It is almost clear that Budhu was killed during a botched robbery since after discharging the rounds, the perpetrators took away a cell phone from Budhu’s girlfriend and escaped.
Police say they have been receiving tips on who the perpetrators are.
“We are receiving some names and we believe that we might solve this one,” a detective on the East Coast told this newspaper.
A few days later, police at Mahaica, some 20 miles away were busy dealing with the murder of farmer Omadat Persaud, who was shot dead when bandits invaded his home and proceeded to rob his sister and her family who were visiting from overseas. But a few days after they commenced investigations it was soon evident that they would run into brick wall. All the witnesses claimed that they could not identify the perpetrators, who were masked at the time of the invasion.
In April, 89-year-old Millicent Prince-Cummings was dragged into a yard at Cove-and-John where she was brutally raped before being bludgeoned to death. Her murder outraged the entire community and although police received several tips, they were not enough for them to pin anyone to the murder.
The police came in for some severe criticism for the way they were probing the matter but up to this day, they are still blank on the matter.
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