-family wants second opinion

Police announced last even-ing that miner Wilberforce Kendall died by drowning but his relatives refuse to accept the finding and plan to have another autopsy done to dispel lingering doubts.

A post-mortem examination (PME) was yesterday conducted at the Georgetown Hospital mortuary by government pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh, nine days after Kendall’s decomposing re-mains were found floating in the Mazaruni River.

According to the police, Dr Singh gave the cause of death as asphyxia due to drowning. However, angry relatives yesterday charged that things were done to cover up evidence and they were convinced that there was more to the man’s death. They also refuted a police statement that said that a PME was done last Friday. According to the police, at that autopsy Dr Vivekanand Brijmohan stated that the cause of death was undetermined owing to the decomposed state of the body. The man’s relatives, the police said, became upset and objected, claiming that the body bore a wound to the neck. Consequently, Dr Brijmohan declared that he was leaving it until Dr Singh returned to work on Monday (yesterday). “On Friday, things were suspicious… No PME was done on that day and I was there,” Kendall’s uncle Michael Kendall said.

According to Michael, after yesterday’s examination a policeman investigating asked them why they were complaining, since Kendall “‘died by drowning and fish ate his flesh and there was mud in his lungs.’” Michael said on hearing this they were upset. They were not satisfied with the results because of things they knew.

Michael showed Stabroek News a copy of the death certificate which stated that blunt trauma contributed to his death.

He said he was shocked to see a Ronald James of Lot 33 Barrack Street, Kingston, listed as a cousin of Kendall, as the informant on the certificate. Michael insisted that he did not know James although he later learnt he was the uncle of Kendall’s spouse. An upset Michael said there were many things in the case “that didn’t make sense” and he did not understand why the police are not investigating. The man claimed he was showed a red jersey that belonged to Kendall which had a visible bullet hole in it. “Why didn’t the police collect it? They ain’t doin nothing man… This country is very slack,” he said.

Michael, who resides overseas, added that he wanted to see a full investigation into his nephew’s death.

Relatives also said that the pilot, Bernard Singh, who was Kendall’s business partner, has vanished. Several calls to his number by newspaper during last week went straight to voicemail.

Kendall will be buried tomorrow at Eversham Village, Corentyne.
Exhumation
Meanwhile, Kendall’s only brother, Mark, who resides in the US, told this newspaper by telephone yesterday that the body will be exhumed before the end of the year. “I am not going to let this sleep… I am going to go and get outside people to go and exhume that body. We are not standing for that [the

autopsy results] and we not going to accept that,” he said. He added that while the body is rotting, his pathologist will find the cause of death.

Mark said he would like to see the police here operate like the ones where he lives, noting that they would go as far as is necessary to determine how a person died. He recalled that in 2000 his uncle was chopped to death here and nothing came out of it. He said he needs closure after Kendall’s death.

Mark also questioned the location of the large quantity of the gold that his brother left the camp with. On the future of Kendall’s mining operation, he said the family will get rid of it since it is of no use to them. He added that he and other relatives had invested a lot to make his brother’s dream a reality.

According to reports, Singh and Kendall left the camp, located at Orokang, Mazaruni two weeks ago. Kendall had a quantity of raw gold in his possession. The two were to make a one-hour journey to Singh’s plane, which was at an airstrip in the Orokang area, and then fly to the city.

The following day, the pilot returned alone, saying that Kendall had drowned. From all accounts, on his return to the camp, the pilot told the miners in the camp that he had landed the plane on the Orokang side of the Mazaruni River and had told Kendall that he would fly to the Chi Chi area while he (Kendall) would swim across.

The pilot related that after he did not see Kendall he started to walk down to the spot where he should have been and when he looked across the river he saw Kendall’s clothing. The pilot and the other members of the camp formed a search party and after four days found his bloated body face down in a basin in the Mazaruni River. The body had passed through three waterfalls and rapids.