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Jan 06, 2014 News
Police appear to be making little headway in solving the murders of five men, who were dumped in Greater Georgetown, on the East Coast of Demerara and on the East Bank Essequibo, between November 20, 2013 and last Friday.
The victims include a homeless man, apparently battered to death and wrapped in a tarpaulin, a mentally ill man from Kitty, a taxi driver, a Charlestown man allegedly linked to crime and a still-unidentified man with a gunshot to the jaw.
On November 20, the decomposing remains of a man of African ancestry, wrapped in a tarpaulin, were discovered on Cane View Avenue, South Ruimveldt. The body bore suspected marks of violence.
The victim was subsequently identified as 43-year-old Dexter Baveghems, a homeless man.One female resident who lives a short distance away speculated that the body was probably dumped overnight.
“Whoever killed him had to dump the body there during the night, because no one noticed that tarpaulin there before,” she said.
Then on Wednesday, December 4, 2013, a group of men found the nude body of 52-year-old Subryanville resident Andrew Erskine on the Georgetown seawalls, in the vicinity of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police Force. A postmortem revealed that Erskine had died from asphyxiation due to drowning. He also sustained an incised wound to his scrotum and blunt trauma to head and concussion injury to the neck.
A sister of the slain man had told Kaieteur News that her brother had been unemployed for several years, suffered from depression and had tried to commit suicide on several occasions. She said that her sibling was also in the habit of hanging out at the seawalls.
The woman said that she last saw Erskine at around 13:30 hrs on Tuesday, December 3.
“I left for work and when I returned he was not there,” she said. Esrkine’s relatives decided to check at the Lyken Funeral Parlour yesterday after learning that a body had been found at the seawalls.
She described her brother as an easy-going individual while expressing puzzlement about his violent demise.
On Thursday, December 19, 2013, two young boys spotted the body of a man of East Indian ancestry near the Ruby, East Bank Essequibo foreshore. The victim had taken a shotgun blast to the face. He had at least four tattoos on his arms, including the one with the name ‘Rebecca.’
He was identified as Rafeek Mohamed, 39, of Drysdale Street, Charlestown.
Mohamed’s reputed wife, Chandroutie Sammy, said that her spouse had left home at around 11:00 hrs on Tuesday, December 17, 2013. According to her, Mohamed had stated that he was going “on the West Coast” in search of a 16-year-old daughter, named ‘Rebecca’, whom he had fathered from another relationship.
Mohamed reportedly had US$100 and some $30,000 in local currency in his possession when he left home. He was also wearing a silver ring and a watch with a green canvas band.
The woman said that she reached her spouse once on his cell phone that day but was unable to make contact with him after that.
Ms. Sammy said that Mohamed sometimes offloaded fishing vessels at the Meadow Bank wharf, and the couple would also “walk and sell” clothing.
But according to information provided to Kaieteur News, Mohamed was a member of a gang that was involved in robberies and burglaries, including safe-cracking. It is alleged that this gang would often dispose of their loot at the Meadow Bank area. Sources who knew Mohamed suggested that the gang had recently done a job ‘over the river’ and that Mohamed and his accomplices had a falling out over the sharing of their spoils. So far, police have been unable to locate the mysterious ‘Rebecca’.
Then on Saturday, December 28, another body turned up at Caneview Avenue, South Ruimveldt. This time the victim was Pegasus taxi driver Rudrinauth Jeeboo, beaten to death and dumped on a garbage heap on Caneview Avenue, South Ruimveldt.
A post mortem revealed that the victim suffered blunt trauma to the head. There was no sign of blood in his car and investigators conclude that he was attacked outside the vehicle.
Surveillance tapes gleaned from security cameras at the Pegasus Hotel showed Jeeboo picking up a man in the hotel compound. Jeeboo then drove outside the compound and picked up a woman before continuing his journey.
Detectives have enhanced the surveillance footage with a view of identifying the passengers.
Police found Jeeboo’s car, minus number plates and taxi logo, at the back of Guyhoc Gardens. No attempt was apparently made to strip the vehicle, and aside from a cell phone, nothing was apparently stolen from the slain man. Detectives seem to believe that robbery was not the motive.
Jeeboo, said to be about 49, had worked with the Pegasus Taxi Service for about 20 years and his colleagues said that he was not in the habit of picking up strange passengers.
Seven days later, the body of an unidentified male with a suspected gunshot to the face was found in a clump of bushes behind Project Dawn, Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara. The man, who appeared to have dreadlocks, was clad in a striped jersey. A pair of black suede female shoes was found near the body. There was a bloodied jersey and a large rock nearby.
The victim was still unidentified up to yesterday, and, as with the other four victims, no arrests have been made.
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