Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum on Wednesday said police have arrested one of the suspects in the death of Akeem Culley, whose body was found in a North Sophia trench on Tuesday.
Blanhum told Stabroek News that the suspect was in police custody and police are stilling searching for a second suspect.
Culley, 25, a pork-knocker/mason, was reported missing after masked gunmen took him from his North Sophia home on December 30.
It is believed by the man’s family that he was murdered and dumped in the trench by the gunmen who removed him from the house, where he was staying with his girlfriend.
His mother, Donna Culley, told Stabroek News that she positively identified her son’s body by a mark he had on his chest.
A post-mortem examination is expected to be performed on the partially-decomposed body today.
After the gunmen barged into the home of the girlfriend Candacy Duncan, they removed Culley, who was standing in the house. When the men entered, they said of Culley, “This is the man! This is the man!” They then took him outside.
Two gunshots were subsequently heard but when Duncan went in search of him both he and the gunmen were gone. Duncan reported the matter immediately to the police but efforts to find Culley were unsuccessful.
His body was discovered by Duncan after residents told her that a corpse was floating in the trench.
Prior to Culley’s disappearance, he along with relatives of Duncan were implicated in a robbery. Persons had accused him of stealing a motorcycle and threatened to beat him. On December 29, Duncan called him and told him not to return home because persons were accusing him of stealing the bike and were looking to beat him.
She, however, pointed out that Culley was determined to clear his name and he returned.
Culley was a father of two children.
