A Pike Street woman says that she found her husband dead in the Georgetown Public Hospital Mortuary four days after he went missing, apparently the victim of an attack by a gang of youths.
Pauline Hinds of 248 Pike Street, Kitty said that 40-year-old seaman Anthony Isles was missing for four days before she discovered that he was dead and in the Hospital Morgue.
Hinds said that Isles, a father of four, had come back from the sea last Tuesday, and had left their home around 7pm last Friday evening without saying where he was going.
She said that four days later, Monday March 4th, her youngest daughter by chance was told that the man was receiving treatment at the GPHC. “Me daughter was in Bounty buying something when a boy tell she that he in the hospital getting saline,” said Hinds. The woman said when her daughter asked if the person was referring to her father, they said yes.
Hinds said she was relieved since she had been calling his phone every day since the Friday evening he disappeared, to no avail. She said that Isles never slept out so when he failed to return home last Friday evening she became worried. “He does never sleep out; even if he come home late in the morning he does come home.”
The woman said she got the news late Monday evening and went to the hospital on Tuesday to try to find him. She had not yet heard that he had died.
A police report stated that a Post Mortem Examination carried out yesterday determined that Isles had succumbed to a fractured skull.
The release also said that Isles was beaten by a group of persons on March 1st, and was admitted to the GPHC that very night. He died the following day.
One Pike Street resident said that he and a group of friends were on a nearby bridge when they heard a commotion. He said that he subsequently noticed a gathering of young boys but could not make out what was happening. Upon investigating the man said he saw the unconscious Isles, lying in the spot where he noticed the commotion. The group of boys had already moved on.
An eyewitness to the incident said that ten minutes after Isles had spoken to him and his friends, six juvenile delinquents attacked the man with beer bottles, a piece of wood and an ice pick. He said that the youth with the piece of wood seemed to cause the most harm, as he continuously dealt Isles lashes all across his body, including his head.
Neither of the men had an idea what may have triggered the beating, but both of them stated that the boys who took part in the beating were local trouble makers who are known to be engaged in criminal activities. He added that none of the boys was older than 18, and all of them reside in close proximity to where the beating took place.
The resident said that when he and his friends discovered Isles’ unconscious body, they lifted him up and took him to a nearby shop where they attempted to revive him. The men said that once at the shop they kept dowsing him with water and was eventually able to revive him. Isles was later taken to the hospital by a frequenter of the shop, who also lives in Pike Street.
Isles must have lost consciousness before he arrived and was admitted because the hospital did not record the man’s name, or any of his personal information apart from the fact that he resides on Pike Street.
According to the resident, although he knew Isles well, the man who took him to the hospital did not know him and was thus unable to provide the hospital with his name or any of his personal information apart from where he lived.
This made Hinds’ mission much harder. She said that no one at the hospital had heard the name “Anthony Isles,” or seen the man in the picture she took with her. The woman said that she went to every part of the Hospital she could think of in search of her husband but did not find him. A nurse eventually suggested to Hinds that she check with at the mortuary as he could have been taken there.
Hinds said she reluctantly followed the suggestions and went over to the morgue bearing the picture of her husband. She said she was led into the facility and shown the body of a man who the morgue officials thought bore some resemblance to her husband. The body was positively identified as that of Isles.
Hinds expressed her shock at seeing her dead husband. She said she was till in disbelief over the matter since she still cannot comprehend how one moment he was working on a home project, and the next laying in a morgue.
It is not clear if anyone has yet been held, but police say that they are investigating the matter.
