Two tombs at the Babu John Cemetery in Port Mourant were discovered open during sunrise yesterday.
As the news of the open tombs spread and reached the ears of the bereaved families, relatives of the deceased persons Komal Goberdhan, 34, of Trainline Settlement, Port Mourant and Appilsammy Munessar 45, of Black Bush Polder, ventured to the scene and summoned the police before replacing the bodies and closing the tombs. The coffins in the tomb had been extracted and left in the open. The items that were placed inside the coffins were also found outside, scattered on the ground.
The two tombs were located approximately 65 feet away from each other and were recently constructed and bore no headstones.
According to Goberdhan’s sister, Neeta, sometime after 7am she received a message that her brother’s tomb was open. The woman related that she sent her son and a few friends to inspect the site as she did not believe the message. However, her fears were confirmed and accompanied by other family members, she visited the vandalised tomb and tried to make sense of what had happened.
The grieving sister lamented that upon arrival on the scene, they discovered the tomb open and the coffin in which her brother was laid to rest, was five feet away from it. The cover of the coffin had been removed and the body was exposed she said, while adding that they found a cutlass and hammer.
When asked if any items were missing, the woman replied in the negative. However, she and other relatives on the scene opined that the persons who broke the tombs, possibly wanted to swap the coffins. When questioned why someone would want to do so, relatives said they were planning to have a second autopsy done since the first did not give a cause of death. The family said that they believed that Goberdhan was poisoned.
Neeta explained that her brother was in good health and very hard working and during the out of crop season, he would work as a fisherman to supplement his family’s income. Hence his sudden sickness came as a surprise to her family.
She related that in the following three months, her brother’s condition worsened and he was in and out of the hospital. The sister stated that he was first admitted to the Port Mourant hospital and was later transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital. According to her, while he was at the hospital, a day before he died, her brother told her that he had been given a lemonade to drink with an unknown substance inside and when he asked what it was, he was told that it was “sugar dust.”
Goberdhan died on June 6th and was buried on June 11th. According to the family, after an autopsy did not give the cause of death, samples were sent to Georgetown for testing.
The family is calling on the authorities to have the police conduct a thorough investigation. Relatives said that on several occasions, they went to the police but they were given a “royal run around.”
“When he died, we made a report and told them what me brother tell me but they only take the report he died,” Neeta recounted. Meanwhile, Munessar’s relatives said that they were puzzled at the discovery and clueless as to why someone would want to break into the tomb of their loved one. Munessar was laid to rest last Friday.