Second dead miner’s phone in use
A cellular phone belonging to another dead Lindo Creek miner is being used, his relatives say.
According to Winston Harry, the father of Bonny Harry who was one of eight men killed at the mining camp in June, an unknown man answered his son’s phone when the number was dialled last week. The unknown man said he was at a hotel in Brazil.
The report of Harry’s phone being in use comes on the heels of revelations that the phone which Dax Arokium, another of the slain miners, reportedly had in his possession at the time of his death had been activated days after the burnt bodies of the miners were found. Several calls were reportedly made from the number, telephone records have shown and police later requested records from the phone company. Police have not said whether they investigated any of the persons to whom calls were made on the phone.
Harry was the manager of the ill-fated Lindo Creek mining camp, where on June 2 Leonard Arokium discovered his burnt remains along with those of his son Dax Arokium, Cecil Arokium, Clifton Wong, Nigel Torres, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes and Lancelot Lee.
Harry’s father explained that another one of his sons dialled the number and an unidentified man answered. He explained that his son, who works in the interior, has been dialling his brother’s phone often since his death and always got his voice mail. But early last week when the number was dialled, a man with a funny sounding accent answered the phone stating: “I am Bonny Harry but I don’t speak English.” The elder Harry said his son reported that the man also claimed to be at a hotel in Brazil before he cut the call. Since then several calls have been made to the number, including by this newspaper, but they go straight to a voicemail recording in Bonny Harry’s voice.
After his son reported the incident to him, Winston Harry said he contacted the Lindo Creek mining site owner, Leonard Arokium, and told him. He did not contact the police. “I know if I go to the police they go tell me is second-hand information so it is my son have to make the report,” he said. He added that his son is expected be out of the interior some time this week and will make a formal report to the police. The important thing, according to Harry, is to get the printout of telephone records from the time his son is believed to have died.
Meanwhile, Harry also said he has been attempting to get word from the police on a Stevens 20-gauge shotgun his son had on his person at the time of his death but there has been no information forthcoming. He said the gun is licensed to him and two sons and he wants to know its whereabouts. He also stated that contrary to earlier reports, he did give a DNA sample to a Jamaican forensics team. Like the other relatives of the slain miners, he has heard nothing from the police about the result.
Two months ago it was revealed that the Dax Arokium’s cellular phone was in use. Moments before he left Kwakwani to go into Lindo Creek on the morning of June 5, 2008 he called a friend asking for credit to be put on his cell phone account. The use of his phone may point tellingly at suspects.
One of his female friends later alerted his family to the fact that the phone was in use when she received a message on July 4. It is believed that a text message the young woman received was sent by Dax but he lost signal before it was transmitted. When the phone was activated in a signal area again after the slaughter, the text, which would have been pending, was automatically transmitted to the woman’s phone. She immediately dialled the number but while someone answered, she only heard noise in the background before the phone went off. She said she redialled the number but it appeared that the phone had been turned off. Later she redialled the number and someone answered and said: “Soldier man ent deh and he lef he phone home,” and hung up. However, this time someone called her back immediately after and asked her who she was trying to get in contact with. She said she informed the person that she had received a text from the number and she wanted to know who had sent it.
According to the young woman, someone then told her it was a soldier’s phone and that he was not around. Soon after, she said, another voice was heard on the phone, which sounded like a child’s, and she was told that he had found the phone in an alleyway in Christianburg, Linden. Even before the child had finished speaking, she added, a woman took the phone and attempted to explain where her “nephew” had found the phone. She explained that the phone belonged to someone she knew and the woman then asked her if she wanted the phone. The woman told her that when her nephew found the phone it was “battered” and two of the buttons were missing, but he decided to remove the SIM card and use it.
The woman later said that her nephew told her that he threw away the phone and he was not sure where. That was the last time the young woman made contact with anyone on the phone, but by this time Dax’s relatives, including his father, had been alerted. The police subsequently said they had arrested three persons who might have knowledge “of a cell phone with a SIM card of a similar number” and they were being questioned. There has been no further information from the police on this investigation although the three persons have since been released. Leonard Arokium has since given a statement to the police and showed them the ‘Flexpack’. The police have not stated why they have been unable to move further in this investigation.