-foul play suspected
An eight-year-old boy disappeared from the Kuru Kururu area just over a month ago and it is suspected that he was killed.
For Eon Prince’s grandmother, Katie Shurland, 65, the boy’s disappearance was the first of two severe blows, as his father, Elson Prince was recently beaten to death at an interior location, in an unrelated incident. The woman only learned of her son’s death on Saturday, after it was reported that a man was charged with killing him.
“Why this had to happen to me? Now ah have to grieve twice. First is meh grandson who ah mind from a baby now meh son. Ow God, why me? Ah praying for God to give me strength,” the woman sobbed.
Shurland told Stabroek News that she had cared for Elson’s only child, Eon, since he was a baby. However, having suffered a stroke and battling various ailments, she made a decision in January to send the eight-year-old boy to live with his mother and two siblings at Kuru Kururu. She said she was also finding it difficult to care for him financially and he was not attending school.
Shurland said she visited Eon during the Easter season and he was in high spirits. “That is the last time ah see he. Just two days before he birthday dey kill he,” she wept.
She recalled that during the wee hours of April 28, she had a strange dream about Eon being trampled to death. She subsequently telephoned his mother, who said that he had gone to spend the day at a friend in the area but never returned.
Shurland added that the mother had been unable to get him enrolled in school, so he would be at the home of a friend and sometimes would go to watch television at a neighbouring house.
Shurland said that a few days later, she went with police to the area and conducted a search but nothing was found. However, later, a teen who did not want to come forward to the police, told her he had witnessed a woman beating the child. “She kill meh grandson and like she dump he body in the bushes or bury he in a shallow grave,” Shurland said.
The woman, she added, was subsequently held at the Timehri Police Station but was released on bail. Shurland recalled that at the station she had pleaded with the woman to reveal the location of the body but she denied any wrongdoing or even laying a hand on the child.
Shurland told this newspaper that she felt that the police did not question the woman enough and was adamant that the woman knew what had happened to her grandson. The police, she added, have since told her that once the body is found, the woman would be rearrested. This newspaper was unable to contact the police for an update on investigations into the disappearance of the child.
Positive identification
When Stabroek News spoke with Shurland at her Westminster, West Bank Demerara home yesterday, she had only hours before positively identified her son’s remains at the Lyken’s Funeral Home in the city. Prince, 42, was allegedly beaten to death with a piece of wood at Ikawana Backdam, Cuyuni River, two Sundays ago, following an argument with a fellow miner. Seaford Overmuller was on Friday charged with murdering Prince at Ikawana Backdam, Cuyuni River.
According to police, Prince was lying in a hammock in a mining camp when he was attacked by Overmuller, 21, of Wakapoa, Pomeroon and lashed about the body with a piece of wood. It was reported that Prince and Overmuller had earlier been drinking, and they had an argument during which Prince had allegedly assaulted Overmuller.
Shurland said her son had been working in the interior for years and she last saw him about three years ago, when he visited her former home at Craig, East Bank Demerara. She said he would usually spend a week or less at her before returning to the interior. Shortly after she last saw him, she said, she moved. She believed that she did not hear from him because she no longer had a landline telephone. She said that she did not know which part of the interior he was at or how she could have contacted him, since he worked in different places.
She recalled that last Saturday her husband telephoned her advising that she buy a newspaper since there was an article in it about Elson. “And ah couldn’t believe meh eyes and after reading de story I start fuh cry. With meh son being murdered ah get confused ah didn’t know what to do,” she explained. The woman said that the following day (Sunday) her brother called to find out if she knew that her son had been murdered and that the body was at a city parlour.
Yesterday morning, in the company of police, she positively identified her son’s remains. “Ah don’t know what ah gon do things done hard and the funeral expenses is a lot,” she said, pondering where she would source the money to bury him.