It has been more than nine years since bank employee Sheema Mangar was killed in broad daylight as she pursued a man who had minutes earlier robbed her of her cellular phone and while her mother tries to remain positive, she is hoping that detectives will give the cold case another look sometime soon.
“Yuh can’t give up. But still…it’s an unsolved matter. Yuh does still want fah know wah really happen. Is like something like this. Like yuh children life. Like we value we children and if yuh send yuh children fah get a job…is like when yuh look at it, like it don’t have value…We do we job as a mother, raise we children right, do the right thing and then yet when them fah get out and get a job it’s not safe…And then when something happen to them, there is nobody like fah represent them or nobody fah stand up fah them, fah stand up fah they right…this is a case that is un-solved. This need to be addressed and they ain’t doing anything about it,” Radica Thakoor recently told Stabroek News.
In September of 2010, Mangar, an employee of a city bank, was waiting to catch a minibus to head home when her phone was snatched from her on North Road.
She pursued the thief, who jumped into a car and ran her down when she tried to stop him from fleeing.
The car dragged Mangar from the Bedford Methodist Church at Camp Street and North Road to the intersection of Camp and Church streets. She died while receiving medical attention at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital hours later.
The police had held a suspect and impounded his car but the man was released several days later.
To date, Thakoor said, no headway has been made in the investigation despite promises from various authorities.
“…This case appointed to from the Commissioner starting from down. From Henry Greene come right down to Brummell. All ah them promise that them woulda look into this matter. All ah them promise that my daughter case was on the top fah solve and up to today no answer and is nine years. So wah the lil hope yuh got,” the distressed Thakoor lamented.
She said it’s like “wasting time” whenever she seeks to get an update on the case.
“I see like it ain’t making sense like. Because when you go, them telling yuh nothing up to date…like I feel like yuh just going and wasting time,” Thakoor said.
However, she said that she is trying to remain hopeful and is not giving up. “There is still a lil bit of hope. Yuh still does got to get lil bit ah faith and lil bit ah hope,” she said.
Front burner
In July 2016, the then Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum had announced the reopening of several ‘cold cases’ by the Major Crimes Unit of the Guyana Police Force.
Among the cases was that of Mangar, which Blanhum had said was placed on the front-burner.
Thakoor believes that if the police were serious about solving her daughter’s murder, it could have been done a long time ago and her killer/s would not have still been roaming the streets freely.
“…If them been want solve this case, them coulda done solve am from the beginning,” she said.
Thakoor explained that her only option now is to keep hoping that the police will look into the matter once again. “Ah hope them still look into the matter. Don’t put it back on the last burner back again…bring forward it,” she added.
From the initial stages, Thakoor said, the police were “slack in the matter”. She blamed the lack of intelligence as the main contributing factor for the murder to still be unsolved.
“…The Guyana Police Force slack in this matter…when you read up, you can see how much them lack of like fah do them job. Them miss out so much ah thing. Them carefree. Like them just don’t really want fah solve a murder so them just leh everything roll and dah is it. Fah them me child done dead and gone,” Thakoor said.
Up to this day, the woman said, many unanswered questions remain as to what exactly transpired on the day of her daughter’s death.
“…From the minute that scene happen, police supposed to be taking statement and find out but everything just leave like that. Is like if yuh child life nah even value nothing…everything supposed to take place at the moment. Look at North Road there, you go on a Friday afternoon there right, a lot of people. It’s a busy area,” she related.
She said she has been hearing various stories from persons but no one is willing to get involved in giving evidence. “I really don’t know. Yuh just hearing from people and then when fah geh evidence, people saying this and people saying dah. Everybody saying this happen and dah happen but nobody nah come forward and seh the driver was wrong or the driver willfully, or the driver dah. No. Everybody just saying wah she (Mangar) do but nobody nah seh wah the driver do,” she added.
DNA
A week after Mangar’s death, the police had detained a man and his car. The man was subsequently released but the police had said they found pieces of fabric beneath the car possibly matching Mangar’s work uniform and it was retrieved for testing.
Officials had been frequently criticised by Mangar’s family and others over the sloth in the probe and the failure to produce DNA results from what was thought to be critical evidence.
In 2013, the then Minister of Home Affairs had announced that they were able to reconfirm that two submissions were made to the lab on November 5, 2010 and August 30, 2011, respectively. It had said that a report on the first submission was received in August 2011 when a Guyana Police Force representative travelled to Barbados to make a second submission.
However, it later revealed that the Barbados lab restarted operations late 2011, having been closed for repairs from 2009 to 2011, yet it continued to accept submissions.
In September 2012, Stabroek News had reported that DNA tests conducted in Barbados on a strand of Mangar’s hair and a blood sample recovered from an impounded car did not yield a positive match.
Thakoor believes that she was constantly lied to by the police about the DNA testing in her daughter’s case. She is even under the impression that it was Mangar’s case that highlighted the need for a local lab.
”Actually me mussy say that how me daughter mussy lay down she life because all them lies wah them told me, them end up and had to build that forensic lab. Because ah all the lies wah them told me dah forensic lab actually build,” she said.
“I think them just…to me the whole case about like them so much ah lie and so much ah lie them told me. Sample gone so and sample gone so….All the lie wah them told me. Samples send here. The last time I hear the sample went to Brazil. Never hear back anything from it. When them ask, them ask fah new clothing of meh daughter, returning back again. Up to now,” Thakoor added.
Two different administrations, no difference
In the past, several letters were written by Thakoor to various authorities, including to the present Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan. To date, she said, she has not received any responses to any of the letters.
In 2015, Thakoor had hand-delivered a letter to Ramjattan’s office asking that an inquiry into her daughter’s murder be held.
She had said that it would appear that the use of her daughter’s name during the 2015 elections campaign was nothing more than a gimmick to woo support.
While on the last campaign trail, now government officials had mentioned Mangar’s case as one of the scores of unsolved murders under the PPP/C reign, Thakoor said, while recalling that a promise had been made to reopen all the cold cases.
“This same one nothing has been done too. Ah the same thing. Because this one serve four year. I write to Minister Ramjattan and he ain’t know nothing about this matter…Blanhum had promised when they did solve a crime that Sheema and some other case would be on the top ah the list and…nothing,” Thakoor stated.
“If them been really interested in putting this matter first, it woulda done actually solve,” she said.
She, however, plans to write the Commissioner of Police or Ramjattan once again sometime in the future. But first, Thakoor said, she has to garner the courage to sit and pen the letter. “…Just to do that, it hurt. It will take a lot,” she noted.
While there is still some hope, Thakoor said that there is zero trust in the police.
“Yuh see the lil hope wah yuh got some time, when yuh look at it like how much trust you can put in the force, just zero. Zero trust because them really don’t care about the oath they take. If them really take them oath seriously, them go value people life and people children life. Children just like them children too,” she said.
“…Let them honour them oath wah them take and do the right thing. Wah else more yuh can plead, how much more yuh can plead,” Thakoor added.
Every day, Thakoor related is an emotional struggle for her trying to forget the horrific manner in which her daughter’s life was snatched away.
“Watch nine to ten years, nothing. And who cares. All you just tek yuh lil pain and just…because wah yuh gonna go. Who yuh go fight. …Yuh tek this lil bit ah pain and yuh put it in a box and you just left it deh…you does got to try….but certain times you does got yuh moments,” she cried.
