A post mortem (PM) examination on the remains of the Riverview seaman who was discovered floating near a Demerara River wharf on Saturday night failed to determine his cause of death due to the advance state of decomposition.
Richard Salakram, called ‘Donkey man’ and Ricky of Lot 1 Riverview, Ruimveldt, who is a suspected pirate, was laid to rest following the PM. There were suspicions that the man was fatally shot during a botched robbery on a ship several days earlier but a police officer told this newspaper that the PM revealed did not reveal this.
According to him, the dead man was a known character to police.
According to reports the man’s decomposing remains, which had a number of wounds believed to be fish bites, was found floating around 7:55 pm. After rope was tied to the body, it was pulled to the marine police wharf located behind the Ruimveldt Police Station.
This newspaper was told that the man was believed to have been involved in an attempted robbery on a ship moored at a wharf in Kingston last Thursday. During the incident, security personnel attached to a city guard service, discharged several rounds at the group who escaped by jumping into the river.
A small boat that the group had used was later discovered drifting alongside the ship.
One relative had said that Salakram left for work last Thursday and did not return. The woman was to return to the nearby Ruimveldt Police Station to make a missing person’s report. The relative had told this newspaper that she suspected murder because there was a visible wound on the man’s head.