Almost one month after a 33-year-old labourer of Bath Settlement, West Berbice went missing relatives continue to search relentlessly but have come up empty-handed.
Seeram `Totes’ Totaram was reportedly seen drinking at a rum shop in the village on the night of his disappearance. There are reports too that he had been arguing with persons and relatives are afraid that he may have been murdered and buried in a shallow grave.
His 16-year-old wife, Vanessa Khemraj had told Stabroek News that she and her husband had no problems that would cause him not to return home. She said though that two persons had threatened him on two separate occasions. She said he had left home at around 7 pm on December 21 to arrange with a friend to work in a rice field the following morning but ended up drinking. The woman said he would sometimes return home at around 1 am when he went out to drink and when that time passed she became worried. She said later that morning she contacted his relatives but they had not seen him either.
She also called the Fort Wellington Police Station to make a missing person’s report but the police told her she had to wait 24 hours. The following afternoon, she said she went to the station and the police checked all the hospitals but there was still no trace of him.
Meanwhile Khemraj said relatives checked in vain “everywhere – from the sea-dam to the backdam” in West Berbice and even some parts on the East Coast.
She later learnt from the friend he was drinking with that her husband left the shop at around 8:30 pm and ended up drinking elsewhere.
A man who was at the second drinking place also told her that her husband had an argument with some persons in the shop. However, the man said he left the shop shortly after the argument started and he did not know what happened in the end.
After hearing about the rum shop brawl and having looked all over for her husband, Khemraj is fearful that he may have been murdered. Relatives told this newspaper that they are following every lead and would continue the search.
