Police investigators will apparently have to depend on DNA evidence to catch the killer(s) in the brutal murder/rape of 90-year-old Millicent Prince-Cummings.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday revealed that DNA samples were taken from three of the nine men who were arrested in connection with the April 12 murder.
Those arrested are persons who were known to be in the vicinity of the abandoned house around the time the elderly woman was believed to have been killed.
According to Persaud, all of those arrested have been released on station bail. He had noted last week that investigators were looking for a lab overseas to process the samples as Guyana does not have the capability to conduct such tests.
According to Persaud, the United States is the preferred choice as the labs in the Caribbean have proven unreliable. Previously the force had used labs in Barbados and Jamaica to assist with DNA testing.
He said yesterday that among the things that the force now has to do is find funding to get the samples out of Guyana.
Prince-Cummings, a mother of one was found beneath the house around 05:30 hrs two Fridays ago with her head bashed in. She was exposed from her waist down. A post-mortem examination later revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and that she sustained blunt trauma to the head.
A condom packet, believed to be linked to the crime and which was found close to the body, is at the police crime lab. It is unclear if this will also be sent abroad for DNA testing.
From all indications, the woman was attacked shortly after she left her home located on the public road at Cove and John, East Coast Demerara. At the time she was going on one of her usual early morning walks. She was heading in the direction of Victoria and could have been attacked as she passed the abandoned house. It is believed that she was dragged beneath the building which is located next to a cemetery.
Neighbours did not recall hearing anything suspicious prior to the gruesome discovery.
It was a man who resided at a back house who discovered the woman while on his way out of the yard. At the time he was on his way to work. The man and other persons who occupied his home (the back house) were detained and questioned for several hours before being released.
Relatives had criticised the police over what they had described as “a sloppy investigation”. One relative had expressed disappointment that the police did not take a sniffer dog to the scene to attempt to trace the killer’s tracks.
The relative said too that police returned to area to question other neighbours more than 24 hours after the woman’s remains were found.
