Police yesterday said they are on the hunt for a person of interest in the murder of Sherwin Apple, one of the two suspects in a rape video that went viral in September.
Crime Chief Lyndon Alves told a press conference yesterday that investigators have identified and are in pursuit of the individual. Alves did not reveal the identity of the person, saying that it could compromise the investigation.
Days after the video went viral on social media, Apple’s body was found at the Kitty Seawall. His death was initially being investigated as a suicide. However, the direction of the investigation turned after an autopsy showed that Apple died as a result of drowning and compression injuries to the neck.
Apple, 41, a clothing vendor of William Street, Kitty, Georgetown and Silver Town, Linden, was discovered lying face down in the mud at the Kitty seawall near Vlissengen Road on Tuesday morning.
At the time of the discovery, blood was running from his nostrils.
The circulation of the video led the Guyana Police Force and the Childcare and Protection Agency to both launch investigations.
Stabroek News had reported that the suspected victim, during questioning by the police in the presence of her mother, denied being the female seen in the video.
Members of Apple’s family have been calling for a thorough investigation as they believed from the inception he was murdered.
A cousin, Telisia Mansfield, had said that the family was in shock after learning of his sudden death. “…I did ringing down he phone because I see he ain’t pull up he blinds and stuff so I was like worried about he and we deh home and we hear they find a Rasta man on the seawall. I saying dah is not me cousin because I know he won’t go drink no poison and them thing so this morning (yesterday) now we hear somebody murder he after they cut he,” the cousin related.
Mansfield had said Apple was a very loving and caring individual and she could not understand why someone would want to end his life.
