Police have arrested five more persons as they continue to investigate the murders of teenaged cousins Isaiah and Joel Henry, whose mutilated bodies were found at Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice (WCB), two Sundays ago.
Speaking to Sunday Stabroek yesterday, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum confirmed that the suspects were arrested on Friday.
He said investigators were able to establish that among those in custody are individuals who allegedly saw the Henrys on the day before their bodies were discovered.
Blanhum said the suspects were detained after they initially denied that the saw the cousins on the day in question.
Some of the suspects in custody were also detained in the early stages of the probe.
The arrests came hours after the police announced that a major exercise to comb the backlands of the No. 2 and No. 3 villages, WCB, involving dozens of ranks, found nothing of “eviential” value for the investigation of the murders.
Police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Royston Andries-Junor had said that 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 the GDF. “However, nothing of evidential value was found,” the police said.
Days prior to this, the police had said that investigations revealed that the Henry’s 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 in a statement had said.
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 police added.
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 were in custody and 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 Saturday, September 5, 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 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 retaliatory killing.
A number of persons, including the owner of a coconut estate, were arrested and questioned in relation to the murder of the Henry’s. 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 mobilizing help from the Regional Secutiry Service (RSS) of the Caribbean and the UK government to bolster the investigative capacity of the police force as they probe the murders.
This newspaper was reliably informed that the authorities met on Thursday to discuss a plan ahead of the arrival of a team from the RSS. The meeting was held to “work out” a methodology towards having the RSS team arriving in the country.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Anil Nandlall on Friday reiterated as part of Ali’s promise to “pursue truth and justice” in the mayhem that has occurred in the region, his ministry would be moving to establish a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the gruesome murders.
During his contribution to the budget debate, Nandlall said that upon the president’s instructions, his ministry will establish a tribunal comprising international jurists to investigate what transpired so that the perpetrators of that tragedy can be brought to justice.
