In a bizarre incident that is believed to have occurred sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the burial-chamber bearing the remains of Shafeek Bacchus, and which had once held those of his brother George Bacchus was broken into.
The nearly seven feet high structure, which is situated in the northern section of Le Repentir Cemetery, was busted open and Shafeek Bacchus’s casket tossed out and ransacked. Yesterday, his corpse lay in the deteriorating open casket much to the displeasure of relatives.
George Bacchus, a self-professed death-squad whistle blower who was gunned down in his bed a few months after his brother was executed outside their Princes Street home, had also been laid to rest in the vault but his corpse was stolen last month.
Jean Bacchus, wife of Shafeek Bacchus, told Stabroek News yesterday that it was only last month that unknown persons broke into the family tomb and carted off George Bacchus’s corpse as well as the casket he had been buried in.
“This thing happening too steady now,” Jean said, while standing over her husband’s ransacked casket. “First was George now is me husband. I don’t know why and who but I am not happy.”
Jean said the police had been informed of the previous break-in as well as this subsequent one. She said the family was disturbed at the recent occurrences.
After the break-in last month the family received no word about who could have possibly carried out the act. Yesterday Jean said they were still in the dark. She was particularly concerned about the frequency of the break-ins. She said there was nothing anyone could do to hurt her or the family through evil deeds.
Her focus yesterday was on getting her husband’s casket back into the tomb and resealing it. She said the family could now only wait on word from the police.
Shafeek Bacchus was executed on January 5, 2004 as he sat outside his home. George Bacchus then disclosed that he was the intended target of the men who had killed his brother. He later made bombshell revelations about the Phantom Squad, which he claimed to have once been an informant for, implicating then home affairs minister, Ronald Gajraj. The minister was later cleared by an inquiry. George Bacchus was murdered in his bed on June 27, 2004.
The family’s handyman Delon Reynolds is awaiting trial in the High Court for the murder.
