As the two-year death anniversary of former boxer Linden Mortley nears, his relatives say that they are still living in fear because they did not know who murdered him and why.
They also say investigators have failed to follow up evidence that has been circulating since his murder.
“If I hearing, they must be hearing too,” one of the man’s relatives told Stabroek News recently.
Mortley, 44, of Sussex Street, Charlestown, was found lying on a bridge leading from Festival City to Guyhoc with gunshot wounds to his head on May 15, 2011.
It is believed that solving the mystery of who picked him up from in front of his home that day may also lead to his killer/s. So far that person’s identity is unknown and based on what Stabroek News had been told there is also very little information available on the vehicle itself.
What was Mortley doing in Festival City? This is a question that relatives say they may never know the answer to, since according to them he had no friends in that area or near the “Busta Bridge” where he was shot dead.
One relative said that the family feels that it is best to “not follow up the story” but was confident that in time the answers to the many questions will be revealed. “Best we leave this and let it take a natural course,” the relative said, while adding that it is still painful to think of Mortley because he was “a nice and hard working person.”
Apparently Mortley knew the person who picked him up very well as up to the point when he had left he was relaxing on Sussex Street with friends. One relative recalled that the man, who operated a minibus on the Linden/Georgetown route, had already parked his vehicle and a motor cycle that he had earlier cleaned in his yard.
He then proceeded down a small passageway to the roadway where he remained until the driver of the car came and collected him. One relative recalled seeing Mortley about 45 minutes to an hour before they received a message that he had been shot dead. The relative said that she has since heard that Mortley was “forced” into the car.
Asked about the motive for the killing, relatives said that this is unclear. It was pointed one that police never visited to update them on the investigations.
“I can’t understand how they ain’t doing nothing at all,” a relative said, while adding that even though so much time has passed “if they pick it up they will find something.”
“Wuking like a dag”
Meanwhile, relatives told this newspaper that Mortley was “wuking like a dag around dem time when he dead.” They said that he was never hiding from anyone or anything and had nothing to fear since he was a hard worker and an honest man.
According to Mortley’s relatives, whenever he was home, he was always “liming in front of the gate.” “He ain’t got nothing to hide or fear,” one of them stressed, while adding that he was not known to have enemies.
Relatives expressed hope that the killer/s will be caught and that they will get justice. “I glad if police could pick it up,” one of them added.
But days after his death, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud had said that the ex-boxer had been on the force’s radar for more than a decade for ties to organised crime, including narcotics and firearm trafficking. Just before his death, he added, the man had been linked to firearm trafficking.
Mortley had been charged with criminal offences three times and at the time of his death he was facing charges related to a firearm and a grenade.
Cold case
A security source told Stabroek News that like other execution-style killings, this matter has gone cold. The source said that it will most likely remain that way.
The source said that a lot of times what is lacking in police investigations is that ranks fail to canvas the area in the absence of any physical evidence.
In the Mortley case, the source pointed out that the police should have been able to single out someone who would have seen something, whether it is Mortley getting into the car and while he was near the bridge. According to the source it is those minor details such as the colour of the car or a licence plate number that can solve this case.
The source said too that in many instances there are suspicions of who are involved in killings such as Mortley’s, but because of who they are and or their links, they are not pursued.
