The Guyana Police Force yesterday announced that dozens of ranks found nothing of “evidential” value for the investigation into the murders of teenaged cousins Isaiah and Joel Henry after hours of combing the backlands of No. 2 and No. 3 villages, West Coast Berbice (WCB) on Thursday.
Nevertheless, as the probe continues, the police said investigators are pursuing “all” leads in their search for two suspects and any other individual/s responsible for the crime.
Police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Royston Andries-Junor made this disclosure in a press statement yesterday morning.
He said a “methodical” search was carried out in the backlands of No. 2 and No. 3 villages, between 7am and 2pm on Thursday by a total of 75 ranks, drawn from Region Five, the Criminal Investigation Department’s Major Crimes Unit and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) led by Commander of Region Five Edmond Cooper and a Lieutenant Colonel. They were also accompanied by government pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh.
Ranks on the ground also received aerial support via a helicopter from the GDF. “However, nothing of evidential value was found,” the police added.
The update came days after the police announced that investigations revealed that Henrys were not killed at the location where their bodies were found. “…Preliminary findings showed that the bodies of the Henry boys were discovered at a secondary crime scene,” the police had said in a statement.
This means that the heinous murders were not committed where the bodies were found. “Person(s) moved the bodies after the murder and placed them at the locations where they were subsequently discovered,” the force had explained.
It was noted that forensic evidence was found at the secondary crime scene and has since been collected, preserved and submitted to the Guyana Forensic Laboratory for DNA analysis.
The police had also said that DNA samples were also collected from the suspects who had been taken into custody and they were sent for a comparative analysis to be conducted against the forensic evidence collected from the secondary crime scene.
The results are expected within the next three weeks.
Two Sundays ago, the police said that the bodies of the cousins were found about 600 feet from each other in clumps of bushes near to a coconut farm on the WCB.
Isaiah, 16, a student at the Woodley Park Secondary School, and Joel, 18, who worked at the Blairmont Estate, went missing on Saturday, September 5th, after they left home for the Cotton Tree backlands to pick coconuts.
After they did not return home, relatives lodged missing persons’ reports with the police and subsequently launched a search. It was while searching that the mutilated bodies of the teens were discovered.
Autopsies performed on the bodies of the teenagers showed that they both died from haemorrhage and shock due to multiple wounds.
Days after the killing, Haresh Singh, a relative of one of the suspects in the matter was also murdered, in what is believed to be a retaliation killing.
A number of persons, including the owner of a coconut estate were arrested and questioned in relation to the murder of the Henrys. However, they were subsequently placed on station bail and are required to make “scheduled” visits to the Blairmont Police Station.
In addition, the police added that they are actively pursuing two suspects.
In an address to the nation of the evening of September 9th, President Irfaan Ali had announced that he will be mobilising help from the Regional Security Service (RSS) of the Caribbean and the UK government to bolster the investigative capacity of the police force as they probe the murders of the teenagers in the village of Cotton Tree as well as the “criminality which led to the disruption of lives along the Region Five corridor.”
Stabroek News was reliably informed that the authorities met on Thursday to discuss a plan ahead of the arrival of a team from the RSS.
