Murder rate, unsolved killings soared in 2008

-157 homicides recorded

  

If the names Mohamed Kalamadeen, Marcyn King, Alicia Foster, Rosaline Hall and Shenese Richardson-Austin have a familiar ring, it's because they are from a large stack of still-unsolved murders that occurred in 2008.

After recording the lowest number of murders in six years in 2007, Guyana's murder rate soared again in 2008 when three mass murders claimed 31 lives. A police official revealed yesterday that 157 people were slain in 2008, compared with 115 in 2007; 150 in 2006; 120 in 2005; 131 in 2004; 206 in 2003; and 142 murders in 2002, the year of the infamous jailbreak.

The 2008 homicide rate soared primarily because of the mass killings at Lusignan, where 11villagers were slaughtered; Bartica, where 12 were slain; and Christmas Falls, where eight miners were murdered and their bodies burnt.


This was compounded by the fact that there were several sensational murders, which remain unsolved. One of the most sensational was the kidnapping and subsequent beheading of Jiffy Lubes proprietor, Mohamed Kalamadeen.

On Wednesday, April 2, Kalamadeen left his home for his customary morning walk on Mandela Avenue, when three armed men accosted him. He was reportedly forced into a dark-blue Toyota AT192, which bore cardboard number plates.

In early May, the businessman's headless body was found on a parapet on Cowan Street, Kingston, 28 days after his abduction. A few days later, his head was found floating in a canal in North Road, a short distance from his business place.

On May 17, the body of 52-year-old businessman Ganga Persaud was found in the trunk of his car in Eighth Street, Diamond at around 06:30 hrs yesterday. Someone had strangled him with lengths of bicycle tubing and duct tape. A woman remains the prime suspect in this case.



On November 30, the bound body of Parika gas station owner, Brandis Roberts, was found in his home.

Police are still trying to find out how Vikesh Budhram, of 642 17th Street, Foulis, East Coast Demerara, ended up dead last November with a single gunshot wound to the neck. Budhram was allegedly slain in his bed while sleeping next to his wife and the couple's one-year-old daughter. From all indications, the killers did not even demand anything from the family but fled immediately after the suspected hit.

Friday, January 9, 2009