After over two years, tests conducted on DNA samples have ruled out the suspects in the rape and murder of Millicent Prince-Cummings.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum told Stabroek News on Thursday that the results were among those returned from Brazil, where samples had been sent for testing as part of a cooperation agreement. All the samples were dispatched in February last year.
According to Blanhum, though the samples returned negative results, they will remain in the DNA bank in the event that they are needed in the future.
The semi-nude body of Prince-Cummings, 90, was found beneath an abandoned house on April 12th, 2013.
Prince-Cummings, a mother of one, was found beneath the house around 5:30am with her head bashed in and 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, was found close to the body.
From all indications, the woman was attacked shortly after she left her home on the public road at Cove and John, East Coast Demerara, for her usual early morning walk. When she left home, 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.
Nine men had been arrested and police later took samples from three of them to see whether traces of their DNA would have been found on the elderly woman.
A relative had described the year-long delay in the return of the results as “extremely disappointing” and “totally ridiculous.” She called for police to pursue the woman’s death and ensure that justice is served.
Meanwhile, Blanhum revealed that samples in another case returned with a positive result. The testing was able to confirm that blood found on pants belonging to Vinod Balgobin was from his wife, Maryann Sunita Nauth, whom he had brutally stabbed to death in 2013. Balgobin was found guilty in March this year after a High Court trial and sentenced to 43 years behind bars.
Nauth’s body was discovered in a room at the K&VC Hotel on South Road. She was stabbed 35 times.
