The decomposed body of a Port Kaituma, North West District (NWD) man was discovered along a trail in Massawini on Saturday, several days after he was reported missing.
Dead is Andy Whyte, 40, of Port Kaituma, NWD. A man has since been arrested and was in police custody up to press time assisting with investigations.
Meanwhile, hours after discovering Whyte’s body police also received a report that two decomposed bodies were discovered at 72 Miles, Issano in Region Seven. Both matters are being investigated.
Whyte’s partially decomposed body, police said in a press statement yesterday, was found along a trail in the Eye Lash Backdam, NWD. Investigators, the statement said, were following up investigations into a missing person report made to the Port Kaituma Police Station by Whyte’s reputed wife last Thursday.
The woman reported Whyte missing after he had left in the company of another man for the Eye Lash Backdam and failed to return.
However, a Port Kaituma source told Stabroek News yesterday that the man’s body was discovered at Massawini and not Eye Lash Backdam as reported by police. Massa-wini, the source explained, is a three hour drive by land cruiser to Port Kaituma.
Two of Whyte’s brothers, the source said, travelled with investigators to the trail to identify his remains. It was his siblings who confirmed his identity before the body was examined and laid to rest at the location.
“The body was in a terrible state and could not be moved,” the source reported. “This man Whyte was literally cut open…his stomach was slashed open with something and he was in quite a messy state when he was discovered.”
The source said that hours after the discovery was made police were able to apprehend the suspect. The suspect, according to them, is the same man with whom Whyte left for the backdam area. “It is unclear what would have moved Whyte’s attacker to end his life in such a brutal manner,” the source further said.
Whyte, this newspaper understands, lived with his reputed wife and two children in Port Kaituma.
Investigations into Whyte’s murder are continuing, police said.
Meanwhile, police have since dispatched a team to the Issano location to investigate the report that two decomposed bodies were found along a trail in 72 Miles. This was all police said in a brief press statement on the matter. They also indicated that at the time no other information was available on the matter.
This newspaper has since learnt from a source in the Police E and F Division that up to press time investigators were still in the area. The source said that based on the contents of the report received about the discovery of bodies the matter is being investigated as a double murder.
The bodies, the source said, are of males and both remained unidentified up to late last night.
Commander of E and F Assistant Commissioner David Ramnarine could not be reached for comment. The E and F Division is the largest police district and almost all of its locations are very difficult to access. It would have taken police hours to travel to the Issano area.
Last year the E and F Division recorded the second highest number of murders countrywide. It tallied a 38 percent increase in murders from 2009.
