The 77-year-old UK-based Guyanese who was found dead with his hands and feet bound in his D’Urban Backlands home on Thursday was strangled to death.
A post-mortem examination conducted by government pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh yesterday revealed that the cause of death was compression of the neck.
Stabroek News has also been told by a relative that George Cadogan was beaten in the head during the incident and that his head was swollen.
From all appearances the motive was robbery as some items including a laptop were missing from the home.
Police said in a release yesterday that Cadogan, a retired solicitor and British citizen, of 180 Century Palm Road, D’Urban Backlands was found around 4.45 pm.
The elderly man was lying on the floor of his house with his hands and feet bound and his mouth gagged with a bed sheet, the release said, adding that the entire bedroom was ransacked.
Further investigations revealed that a laptop computer was missing.
When Stabroek News revisited the scene around midday yesterday, it was still cordoned off with yellow police tape. Two ranks were observed going to several nearby houses where they spoke with persons.
This reporter was told by one of the officers that entry could not be gained to speak to the man’s relatives as the house was still a crime scene. More ranks were inside questioning relatives and conducting further investigations.
It was Cadogan’s brother, Glen who made the gruesome discovery. He turned up at the house after several telephone calls to the home went unanswered and noticed that a sheet of plywood blocking a window on the ground floor was out of place.
He was earlier forced to tie a bag of fruits to the gate after his brother did not respond to his calls.
Relatives had told this newspaper that the dead man was a UK-based Guyanese who returned home just before Christmas last year.
The man was planning to sell the property and return to England where his wife and children reside.
At the time of his death, some minor repairs were being done on the house. Relatives had expressed suspicions that the perpetrator/s gained entry to the house though ground floor windows which were being repaired.
The man’s children were scheduled to arrive in the country last night.