Non Pareil man found dead near bike

A 52-year-old Non Pareil man was found dead on the Coldingen access road around midnight on Saturday and the circumstances of his death are unclear.

Balkissoon Latchman of 163 Section ‘B’ Non Pareil was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital after his body was taken there by police ranks who were on a mobile patrol at the time. His relatives are contending that he was the victim of a robbery.

Latchman’s son, Robin Latchman, identified his father’s body yesterday morning after he was told by the police at the Vigilance Police Station that the body was at the mortuary. The man had called the station for information regarding his father after his step-mother called to inform them that the elder Latchman did not return home since he left on Saturday afternoon. He said that he was only able to see his father’s face. There was a bruise on his cheek and dent on his forehead. Robin Latchman said that he saw the bicycle his father was riding at the time of his death at the police station and it did not look as though it was involved in an accident. “Only the chain slip…nothing else nah wrang with the bike,” he related to Stabroek News yesterday. 

The father had gone to a barbecue his son kept on Saturday night at his residence, several houses over the railway embankment road on the same Coldingen access road. Robin Latchman said that he last saw his father around 9:30 the said night and does not know when the man left. The dead man’s son said that his father would always tell them when he was leaving whenever he came to a function they kept. He said that he would then watch him while he crossed the railway embankment and turned into his street. “I consider he safe when he reach he street,” his son related to this newspaper. He said too that his father would call when he reached home. It was therefore strange when he left without saying and did not call either.

Robin Latchman said that no one thought much since they were all busy cleaning up after his barbecue and wanted to get some sleep. He said that he turned off the music at 12:15 am and looked up the road and saw the lights on a patrol vehicle across the railway road. “I didn’t tek it for nothing,” he said. About an hour later a friend told him that they found a body “over the road” but not expecting it to be his father the man went to sleep.

The next morning his aunt called to tell him that his father did not come home. That is when he remembered what his friend told him the night before and he then called the police.

He asked the officer what clothes the man they found was wearing. Although the description matched what his father was wearing he still wanted to make sure and went to the station where he saw the bicycle, confirming his worst fears.

Stabroek News visited the man’s residence and spoke to his widow Rita Doasan who said that she last saw her husband on Saturday morning when she left home for work. The woman said that when she went home on Saturday her husband had already left for his son’s place. She said that when she did not see him come home she thought that he had stayed over as he usually does sometimes. She left for work and called home when she got there.  When she got no response she called her sister-in-law who in turn called the man’s son.

Stabroek News contacted Robin Latchman later yesterday afternoon and he said that he made a second visit to the station. He said that the police told him that some passers-by had seen the man on the road, with his head in the trench and thought he was drunk and sleeping there. Otherwise there was nothing else new in the investigation.

Meanwhile a police press release said that the police are investigating the incident. A post- mortem examination will be performed soon on the body.