The trails have gone cold in the investigations of two recent execution-style killings, despite a number of arrests.
Police suspect that the murder of clothes vendor Raphael Piggott two weeks ago was drug-related, while they are yet to establish a motive behind last month’s killing of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee Alicia Foster. There have been no charges in either case.
Contacted yesterday, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud said he had read in a newspaper that a suspect was arrested in the Piggott matter but he made several checks and found that this was not so. He said that the two persons initially held – Piggott’s pregnant girlfriend Evanese King and his friend Vincent Da Costa — were released from custody on station bail and no one else has been held since.
Persaud said there has been no new development in the Foster investigation.
Piggott was shot by a lone gunman as he was about to drop Da Costa at his Sixth Street, Cummings Lodge home.
The gunman then fled the scene in a car while the wounded Piggott was subsequently pronounced dead at a city hospital.
Police found US$14,041 and 1,100 euros in the vehicle at the murder scene and later revealed that eight packets of cocaine weighing eight kilogrammes were found concealed in the fuel tank of the vehicle, which had been adjusted.
King and Da Costa, who were in the car at the time of the shooting, were arrested following the drug find.
However, Piggott’s relatives said they did not believe he was involved in anything illegal. They said he walked and sold clothing and spare parts and also worked his car as a taxi.
Acting Police Commis-sioner Henry Greene had told Stabroek News in an invited comment that the clothes vendor had never been under the police radar for drug trafficking and was unknown.
Meanwhile, Foster was shot and killed on October 12 as she sat in her car waiting on a younger sister to open the gate to their David Street, Kitty residence. She was approached by a man who demanded that she exit the car and then shot in the face and pulled out of the vehicle. Her assailant then jumped into the car and drove away while his accomplice fled the scene.
The day after the shooting, the woman’s car PHH 2236 was found abandoned at Well Road, North Ruimveldt, minus the keys.
The woman’s father James Foster had told Stabroek News that his daughter was not the victim of a carjacking or a robbery. He noted that nothing was taken from her except her life and believed that something was amiss. He also said he was prepared to allow the police to solve his daughter’s murder.
Police ruled out robbery as the motive behind the killing of the young woman and said they were following several leads. A week after the killing of the 25-year-old environmental officer a suspect matching the description of one of the perpetrators were held but subsequently released after he was not recognised at an identification parade.