The Guyana Police Force said yesterday said that a hair sample in the Sheema Mangar case which was to be taken to Barbados for testing in October 2010 was left behind by a policeman but it was eventually dispatched to Bridgetown in August last year and the results are being awaited.
In a widely publicized case, Mangar was run over by a car in September 2010 driven by the man who stole her cell phone and she later died. Her family has expressed frustration at the pace of the police probe.
The police statement was issued in relation to a report in Kaieteur News yesterday about the hair sample being left behind in Guyana.
The statement from Eve Leary said the police had processed two cars that were suspected to have been involved in the matter and items from the vehicles were submitted to the Police Forensic Laboratory for analysis.
“During October 2010 the Officer in-charge of the Forensic Laboratory was instructed to take the samples to the Barbados Police Forensic Laboratory for analysis,” the release said. “He did go to Barbados with the exhibits recovered from the crime scene during October, 2010, and officials of the Barbados Police Forensic Laboratory had indicated to him that they would have completed the analysis by January 2011.”
Those results came back in July last year, the police said. It noted however, that they did not include the analysis of a hair sample that had been found on one of the vehicles.
“Enquiries disclosed that the officer had not submitted the hair to the Barbados Police Forensic Laboratory as it had been left behind,” the police said. “The procedures with a view to disciplinary action are being taken against the officer concerned.”
The release said the hair was subsequently submitted to the Barbados’ Police Forensic Laboratory for analysis in August last year and the results are being awaited.
The police expressed disappointment “at the continuing publication of inaccurate and misleading information concerning police-related issues by the Kaieteur News which can only be construed as aimed at sullying the image of the force.”
The release, noting that the article accuses the “Police Top Brass” of lying to the public, the media, and to Mangar’s family on the issue of the samples being taken to Barbados for analysis, when in fact the police officials had been truthful and correct, said the situation could have been avoided had the reporter sought a comment from the police.
