The remains of Jason Fraser, 19, a labourer at the Barama Company’s Buckhall, Essequibo River operation, was yesterday pulled from a wood shedding machine, three days after he went missing.
According to reports, Fraser, of Cane Field Village, Canje, Berbice, was reported missing by his colleagues on Monday afternoon, some time after he completed the day shift. Searches were carried out at several locations within the work compound but yielded no result. Barama could not be reached for an official statement yesterday.
It was then suspected that the man’s remains were in the machine and the police as well as the teen’s parents were called in. When the lawmen arrived, the machine was opened in the presence of the man’s brother and colleagues and their worst fears were confirmed.
When contacted last evening, Minister of Labour Manzoor Nadir told Stabroek News that he was unaware of the incident.
Fraser had been working with the company for around two months. Co-workers noted that he appeared to be comfortable with his working environment and displayed no suicidal tendencies. A company official noted that the police collected relevant information from Barama but he could not say if the man’s death was treated as suicide or a murder.
Asked whether the man’s demise was seen as the result of an industrial accident, the official noted that technicians advised that “it is physically impossible” for someone’s body to pass into the machine, as wood being discarded would have to pass through a narrow passage before being chipped by a high powered blade. Another official stated that all the safety features on the machine were intact and as such it is unclear how Fraser’s body entered the device. “The machine the guy got caught in is in normal working order and had only been in operation a few months now. The way in which it happens is virtually impossible to get a body to pass through a two-inch space …”
Fraser’s remains are at the Suddie Hospital Mortuary on the Essequibo Coast as investigations into his death continue.
