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.
