Police question hotel owner’s husband again

Police questioned the husband of hotel owner Roselaine Hall again yesterday in the light of Thursday afternoon’s discovery of the badly decomposed remains of a woman on the Linden Highway.

The remains, which were wrapped in blue tarpaulin, were dressed in clothing positively identified as what Hall had been wearing the day she was last seen.

Stabroek News had spoken with Hall’s husband Romeo Rockerfeller earlier yesterday but when this newspaper contacted the man later on he said he was at the Brickdam Police Station and was being questioned by the police.

Meanwhile, this newspaper was reliably informed that a post-mortem examination could not be done yesterday even though it was attempted, owing to the state of decomposition of the remains. A Georgetown Public Hospital source informed this newspaper that the corpse was taken there from the Lyken Funeral Home, but some amount of scepticism was displayed and an alternate place for the examination to be performed was reportedly being arranged. This newspaper was informed that in such cases, the examination could be performed in the cemetery.

When this newspaper spoke with Rockerfeller yesterday, he said he was disappointed that he was never informed by the police that they had found a corpse. The man said he felt he was bypassed, while a member of staff at the woman’s hotel was notified of the find and she positively identified the woman’s clothing.

“The police didn’t even call me and tell me anything and I feel bad about it; like if I am not this woman’s husband. I feel bad that the media had to call me and tell me,” he said.

Rockerfeller told Stabroek News that he had received a telephone call from a reporter who advised him that a body had been found close to Yarrowkabra on the highway. He said the reporter made arrangements to pick him up and they went to the Brickdam Police Station.

“When I reach there I see a staff and who identify the clothes,” the man said. He said a police rank told him to return to the station the next day [yesterday].

Rockerfeller said it was sad that his wife had to die that way. “She don’t deserve that. It’s real sad because she was only now enjoying life and only recently open her boutique and that was what she always dreamed about,” he recounted.

Asked whether his wife knew anyone living on the highway or in the vicinity where the corpse was found, the man said Hall was a complete stranger to this country and so depended on her ex-husband to carry her around, since he was her chauffeur.

Alex Barker, Hall’s ex-husband has also not been seen since her disappearance. The police have since issued a wanted bulletin for him.

Meanwhile, Rockerfeller also told this newspaper that he felt everyone has turned against him since the woman’s disappearance and none of his wife’s relatives had even made contact with him.

He denied a statement made by his mother-in-law, Joyce Mc Pherson Hall, who had said that he had left a message on her answering machine informing her of her daughter’s disappearance.

Rockerfeller also said that he had spoken to his mother-in-law and stepdaughter on several occasions and was confused as to why the woman would say that she had never spoken to him in the past.

“I talk to her so many times when Rose would call and she would hand me the phone to say hello. And I have spoken to my stepdaughter as well…”

Mc Pherson Hall had told this newspaper that her daughter was in the process of getting a divorce from Rockerfeller, who was her second husband. Rockerfeller did not deny this yesterday, but said his wife had only done so out of anger and had later informed him that she had scrapped the matter.

“She told me that she wanted a divorce because she was upset at the time and went and file something but then she tell me that she went to the judge and scrap. But I don’t know anything that it was going to be finalized anytime this month,” he said.

The man said when he last spoke with his wife on January 30 she was preparing to meet him in Trinidad for carnival. He was reportedly in Trinidad at the time the woman was discovered missing. Staff at the hotel made the report after they realized that they had not seen her for two days. They said Barker had told them that she had left for Suriname and had given him the Power of Attorney to take care of the business until she returned.

“I was communicating with her all the time because she was coming up there to meet me and she had bought her ticket,” he said. A staff member who was present at the time of the interview, confirmed that she had booked the ticket for Hall and the woman had reportedly gone to pick it up in the company of her ex-husband.

That day Roselaine Hall was picked up by Barker who had driven her to the hairdresser. She then returned to the hotel where she uplifted $22,000 and left again with Barker. This newspaper had learnt that Hall’s eyes were swollen and she was to have been going to see a doctor at the time. Quizzed about this yesterday, Rockerfeller said he had been told that she was wearing sunglasses and that something was wrong with her eyes. He also confirmed that she was supposed to have been going to the doctor.

Hall’s mother and hotel staff have said that the woman was physically abused by her ex-husband, sometimes in full view of staff. Hall’s mother also said that her daughter had complained of abuse at the hands of her second husband.

Up to press time last night, there was nothing forthcoming from the police with regard to the investigation.