Three more persons including a prominent businessman are aiding the police in their investigations into the Island Princess saga as its owner Errol Prince continues to question how the vessel ended up in Grenada and what could have led to the brutal murder of three crew members.
It is unclear how the trio is tied into the investigations. Sources said too that the businessman’s boat was moored at a Friendship, East Bank Demerara wharf after the Island Princess disappeared. The Island Princess was to have returned to that very wharf.
According to reports reaching this newspaper, the men were taken down to CID headquarters, Eve Leary yesterday morning where they were grilled.
The businessman who is the owner of a funeral parlour was arrested on Tuesday night at one of his business locations, where he was said to have been hiding out since the incident.
A source close to the parlour confirmed to this newspaper that he had not seen the man for some time. He later said that the businessman was at Eve Leary but could not say for what.
It is unclear if the men were still in custody at press time last evening.
This newspaper was unable to reach senior police officers yesterday to get an update on the local investigations into the incident.
Speaking to Stabroek News last evening Prince described the mystery as `real real weird’ and expressed hope that sometime in the near future all questions surrounding the incident will be answered.
He said that he wants his vessel even if it means going for it himself.
“Right now I trying to push things along so that I could get back the vessel. I want the police to do their thing first. I will give them up to this week end and if I can go I will go”, he said.
He added that from all appearances the vessel will be taken to Trinidad and if necessary he will collect it from there as the Island Princess is what he depends on for survival.
Prince stated that he is happy that his vessel had been found and once he gets it back on the seas he would assist the families of the slain men financially. He said he is accepting that responsibility because the men were on his vessel though they were not his crew.
According to Prince he still has sleepless night just thinking about what may have transpired aboard and how it ended up where it was found. He added that the perpetrators had to have used another vessel to reach his and questioned why they would have left it drifting if their desire was to steal it.
Why kill the men in such a manner, he said is another baffling question.
Prince told this newspaper that the Grenadian police had contacted him and one of the things that came up during that conversation was a crew list. However he explained to this newspaper that it was an old crew list and had nothing to do with the crew that was aboard.
How the boat ended up where it was found was another question but according to Prince the memory chip in the GPS system would have a record of its route.
Meanwhile a security source on the island said yesterday that the police in Guyana have been contacted and their counterparts in Grenada are awaiting a response.
In the meantime, the source said the ranks attached to the Royal Grenada Police Force are continuing their investigations and he stressed that the boat was only towed to the island because that was the nearest port.
The source said again yesterday that nothing illegal was found aboard the Island Princess.
Though the vessel was found in Grenada’s jurisdiction, the responsibility to return it here lies with Guyana. In the meantime it is moored at the island’s Coast Guard base.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud told this newspaper on Tuesday that they are in contact with their counterparts in Grenada and Trinidad to make arrangements for the vessel to be returned here.
He said that the questioning of several persons has failed to yield a motive for the killing of the three crew members.
The Island Princess along with its four-man crew disappeared on September 26; the last known location being the mouth of the Essequibo River.
It is suspected that Mahendra Singh called Sunil, Ryan Chin, Rickford Bannister and Titus Buckery Nascimento made up that crew.
The following week, three decomposing and gutted bodied washed up in the River and based on items recovered the bodies were identified as Chin, Singh and Nascimento. The body of Bannister who was the security guard aboard the vessel is yet to be found and there are suggestions that the man is either alive or his body is floating somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.
Police after the discoveries, mounted an investigation and sought the assistance of Interpol and the UD Drug Enforcement Authority (DEA).
Last Monday the vessel was found drifting off the coast of Grenada by the DEA and the following morning it was towed to shore and boarded.
The vessel was found to be flooded with water and two passports and pieces of clothing were found.