More than a year after a man was hacked to death and a teen girl mutilated, police yesterday issued a wanted bulletin for the North West District miner believed to be responsible.
Police said Addisena Benjamin, called “Yai,” 24, is wanted for questioning about the murder of Junior Joseph and the attempted murder of the girl, which occurred on May 21, 2012.
Benjamin’s last known addresses are Oronoque, Port Kaituma, North West District and Grant Success, Lower Pomeroon River. Anyone with information that may lead to his arrest is asked to contact the police on telephone numbers 225-6411, 225-2227, 226-1333, 225-2722, 911 or the nearest police station. All information will be treated with strict confidence, police added.
Based on reports, Benjamin and the girl, who was 16 years old at the time of the attack, shared a relationship, while Joseph, 22, of Lot 17 Onderneeming, Essequibo Coast, was one of the man’s employees. Benjamin had met the girl at a Kayamoo—a barrack-like accommodation for sex workers. Benjamin later took the teen to live with him at his mining camp, located at Big Creek Backdam, in the North West. However, he subsequently suspected that the girl was being unfaithful to him and decided to hatch a plan to catch her in the act.
Days before the murder, Benjamin travelled out of the area, leaving his girlfriend in charge of the camp. Sometime later, he contacted her and informed her that he would be sending in supplies for the dredge and that he would travel to the location two or three days after. As promised, the man sent in a 4×4 vehicle loaded with supplies for the dredge and caught another vehicle which travelled closely behind. Reports are that when the man arrived at his camp, he found Joseph and the teen in a compromising position and went berserk.
From all indications, he caught Joseph off guard and began chopping him on his neck as the teen stood helplessly nearby. When Joseph’s neck was almost severed from his body, the man turned his cutlass on the teen.
The badly-wounded girl was transferred to the Port Kaituma Hospital by persons in the area before being air-dashed to the city, where she underwent emergency surgery to close her wounds at the Georgetown Public Hospital. She spent a long period in the Intensive Care Unit in an unconscious state and is still suffering the effects of her injuries. Stabroek News was told that the teen remembers very little about what had occurred on the day of the attack. Her speech is now slurred and she walks with a limp.