A Trinidadian woman who arrived in Berbice last evening to establish whether the two bodies which washed up on the Corentyne shore one week ago were those of her missing brothers, left Guyana feeling relieved after the dental records did not match.
The brothers, aged 39 and 49 and whose names are Edgar and Vinton Frank had been missing since last July after they left Grenada on their cabin cruiser Reel Lucky. The woman had made a request for a dentist to be on hand.
Sources said the woman, who was expected to arrive in the country a few days ago but was having difficulty with flights, is still holding on to hopes that her brothers may turn up alive.
A resident of the West Coast of Demerara who read the article about the bound bodies when it was first published in last week’s Sunday Stabroek informed the woman’s relatives in Tobago and they contacted local police.
Police sources had told this newspaper that even if the persons had not arrived they were “going ahead with post-mortem on Monday” as the bodies could no longer be kept. The bodies are now in an advanced stage of decomposition as a consequence of the constant blackouts on the Corentyne.
Meantime, two policemen from Suriname visited Guyana on Friday to view the remains of the men at the Port Mourant Hospital mortuary. They told Stabroek News that they had not received any reports of missing persons.
But they took photographs of the bodies and are hoping to circulate them to all the police stations in their country and neighbouring French Guiana in case someone should come forward. They are working on the theory that the men may be fishermen.
The bodies of the men were found on the Corentyne with their hands and feet bound with pieces of rope. Persons who made the gruesome discovery had told this newspaper the men were without footwear and were clad in shorts/three-quarter pants and t-shirts.
A fisherman said that he encountered one of the bodies last Saturday morning at Manches-ter as he was going to check his seine.
The man’s hands and feet were tied together in front in with a red rope; he was almost in a crouching position and his body was braced face-down on a mangrove tree. Police sources had told this newspaper they had a hard time removing the corpse which was stuck between the tree and pieces of logs.
The other body was discovered last Thursday afternoon by a gardener on the shore in the vicinity of a fish pond at Whim. The hands and feet were bound with yellow rope from the back. The police were informed of the discovery and they later removed the bodies.
