After he was not seen for two weeks, relatives discovered the badly decomposed body of Henry Gobin in the lower flat of his house at Lot 325 Brehaspat Street, Number Two Village, East Canje.
The stench emanating from the remains filled the air, but neighbours thought it was from the nearby swine pen. However, it was the unkempt state of the yard which signalled that something might have gone terribly wrong.
The 74-year-old man was described by neighbours and relatives as “a man who kept to himself.” A neighbour who grew up and lived four houses away, said, “He never responded when he was greeted.”
Pointing to the mango tree in front of Gobin’s yard, the teenage neighbour said, “You dare not pick any of his mangoes. And even if you asked, he did not give any. But after we hear he dead… we picked bag full!”
Paul Gobin, 41, the dead man’s nephew, was unable to say anything much about his father’s brother.
“He lived alone. He never really talked with us,” he lamented. “My father was murdered many years ago and my uncle never really had us come around him. All I recall was that he was a head teacher at some school at Port Mourant, on the Corentyne.
“I recall too, of him living in this house with an older sister. She too had a similar death. They never mixed with persons. And the neighbours… never looked out for them.”
Following the discovery, the police were alerted. Relatives said they were given permission to bury Gobin on Friday, a few hours after the discovery of the body. However, the funeral homes did not want to handle the remains unless there was going to be an immediate burial. But efforts to contact gravediggers were unsuccessful. Hours later, a senior police officer contacted the Gobin’s relatives instructing them not to bury but to await the findings of a post-mortem examination scheduled for Monday. The autopsy will be conducted by Dr Nehaul Singh.
