Relatives of a miner, who died on Friday and whose autopsy revealed that he died of respiratory failure due to a severed spine and injuries to the nape, suspect foul play.
The sister and aunt of Patrick Richards called ‘Junior’ of 129 Main Road, Port Kaituma who died at the Georgetown Public Hospital last Friday said they did not believe his death was as a result of him injuring himself from swimming in the river as was claimed.
Speaking with Stabroek News, the man’s sister Ayodelli Humphrey said several inconsistent reports were given to her. The woman said that on the evening before Richards’ death he confided that he had some 1oz 15 pennyweight of gold. Subse-quently she said he returned with $400,000 and told her he was going out “to lime” with his girlfriend and her cousin.
She said later that evening he called her to pick him up, which she did.
Humphrey added that it was around lunch on the following day that she received a call that her brother was lying on the riverbank in a semi conscious state. When she got there her brother, who was still able to speak, was soaked through but fully dressed. She said he told her that he saw a group of friends and went to purchase drinks for them, but after arriving with the drinks he cannot remember anything else except gaining consciousness underwater and biting the hand of the person who pulled him from in the river.
The woman said that she questioned her brother’s friend and was given several different accounts of what transpired ranging from her brother swimming in the river in all his clothes, drinking with friends and everyone leaving him there, being hit at the back of his neck, to him leaving everyone at the riverbank to bathe at a nearby house.
A report was made to the Port Kaituma police station. However relatives are upset that the police did not properly investigate the matter since when Richards was conscious no one took a statement from him.
The man’s aunt said that instead the police joked about her nephew’s condition.
Richards died on Friday after being transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital. An autopsy stated cause of death as respiratory failure due to a fractured spine. He had bruises on the back of his neck.
