Proprietor of the South Central Hotel, Joseph Jagdeo (an earlier edition of this news item had incorrectly reported the name as Jagan) was found dead underneath a bed in one of the hotel’s rooms yesterday morning.
The body of Jagdeo, 59, was found at approximately 6am by an employee at the 218 South Road business. His hands were tied and a cloth covered his mouth. Police have several persons who frequent the hotel in custody for questioning. A post-mortem examination was this morning performed on the body of Jagdeo by Government Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh who gave the cause of death as asphyxia due to manual strangulation, according to a statement today by the police.
The discovery of the man’s body in Room 10 of the hotel was made almost a day since he was last seen alive. Hotel staff recalled that since Wednesday Jagdeo had not been seen, which was odd because he usually would spend the majority of his day in his office, which is located at the front of the hotel on the second floor. However, as hotel staffers came and went through their shifts, no one seemed to know where Jagdeo was.
Employees recalled that the keys to Room 10 were found on the bed under which the man’s body was found, suggesting that whoever was in the room locked the door then threw the keys over the façade wall. One employee recalled that a live-in tenant, who goes by the call name “Buxton,” was looking for the Room 10 keys on Wednesday. Employees just assumed the key was missing and would turn up.
An employee who saw Jagdeo on Wednesday said that she spoke with him at approximately 8 am and after a quick chat he had left the building but no one could remember when he came back.
Another employee recalled that Jagdeo’s office door was left open and his keys were on the door, which was unlike him. “He does take his keys… so when his keys were there, I just kept asking, ‘You know where Uncle Joey?’ And the bar lady said he went out,” she stated.
She added that around 7pm on Wednesday when she arrived, she looked around, but he was nowhere to be found. She recalled that at around midnight she asked staff and persons at the hotel if they had seen Jagdeo but to no avail.
Jagdeo’s staff and his wife all noted that Jagdeo did not sleep out and would always return to the hotel at night.
Jagdeo’s wife told Stabroek News that he was a quiet man who returned from overseas over 20 years ago and bought over the hotel from his parents and siblings.
She said that the business did not make a lot of money and that Jagdeo would often borrow small sums of money, even from her, to keep it afloat. She recalled that Jagdeo paid staff and worried about his bill but that he didn’t borrow large sums of money from people to keep the business going. She said that business has been slow for years. Jagdeo did not have enemies, according to the woman. “I just have a feeling that someone just come fuh kill he, because nothing gone and I just don’t know what to think,” she said.
She said that there were currently four live-in residents and that the police would be questioning all staff in their investigations
She noted that within the past year there has been nothing out of the ordinary and it was all business as usual. She did mention that the hotel, which is known to be a “short stay” hotel used for sexual encounters, was seeing declining business.
