Months have passed and with patience beginning to run thin for the families of West Coast Berbice (WCB) teenagers Joel and Isaiah Henry and Haresh Singh, who were brutally murdered in September, they are hoping that the New Year will bring long-awaited justice.
Stabroek News recently spoke with the families of the three teenagers, who related that the pain of losing their loved ones remains fresh and while it may never heal, they are living every passing day hoping that those responsible for the crimes will be caught and punished.
For all three fam ilies, justice remains a top priority.
Isaiah’s father, Gladston Henry told Stabroek News that he has been trying to remain sane through it all but as of recent, the situation has been taking a toll on him.
“….All the time I was being strong…..Now I am feeling a bit worried, I am feeling sad till I am being depressed. All the time the anger I was keeping inside and telling myself that we will get over it. Not fully get over it but we would have get somewhere. But I am feeling very sad right now. I think that I am feeling worse than I was before. Sleepless nights and everything you can think of,” he said.
Gladston added that despite everything, he is certain that no matter how long it takes, one day he will receive justice.
“I think that one day we will get justice…. I am certain for sure that we will get justice some day,” he said.
Joel’s mother Gail Johnson related that right now all she needs is justice for her son.
“I need justice for my child that is the only thing interfering with me right now. If man don’t give me justice, God going to give me because Iserve a true and living God…my child did not do anything to be harmed,” Johnson said.
Like the Henrys, the relatives of Haresh Singh said they too have been hoping for justice every day. “We need justice yeah. Is just that we waiting when justice will come to us,” a relative, who wished not to be named said.
Isaiah, 16, a student at the Woodley Park Secondary School, and Joel, 18, who worked at the Blairmont Estate, went missing on Saturday, September 5, after they left home for the Cotton Tree backlands to pick coconuts. Their mutilated bodies were found the next day during a search, sparking days of unrest in West Berbice.
Days after, another teenager, Singh, was also murdered in what is believed to be a reprisal killing.
All three of the families have expressed to this newspaper that they are unsure about what is going on with the police investigation since they are not being provided with any update.
“I was holding on saying something would come out and now nothing come out of it and I don’t know where the investigation heading or what is happening because we are not getting an update of this thing,” Gladston said.
Johnson shared similar views. “I don’t even know because I don’t get a feedback from nothing. I don’t even know what really going on but I need justice for my child because I don’t really like how the police really reacting,” she noted.
They have expressed disappointment in the manner in which the matters are being dealt with by the Guyana Police Force (GPF).
Efforts made by this newspaper to seek an update on the current status of the investigation proved futile. Over recent weeks, the GPF has provided little information on the probes and whenever questioned would say that the investigations are ongoing.
“No support”
Earlier this month, Director of the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropology (EAAF) Dr. Luis Fondebrider visited Guyana to conduct an assessment on whether the team is capable of assisting the GPF with the probes.
In early October, the GPF, Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) and the
law firm Hughes, Fields & Stoby had announced that the EAAF team had offered to aid local authorities with the investigations.
In a joint statement, they had said that the team, which has worked on high profile cases in many parts of the world, offered to send a team to Guyana, including a forensic pathologist, a forensic anthropologist, a forensic radiologist and a criminalist.
During his five-day visit, Dr. Fondebrider met with the families of the teenagers, visited the crime scene and the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) mortuary and met with Benn and senior members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), including Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum.
Before his departure, Dr. Fondebrider told reporters that he had requested a list of 20 documents from the police in order to offer advice on solving the murders.
Dr. Fondebrider had said that he would only be in a position to provide recommendations and advice on the probes once the documents are provided to him. “I need documents. I need reports from the crime scene, from the autopsy, the complete analysis. I don’t have it……I told them very clearly what I need. I need documents from the work of the crime scene, I need to see pictures, maps, the scriptures, to which labs were the samples taken from the bodies from the scene sent, I need to see the autopsy reports, how long it took the autopsy, the condition of the mortuary. Only with that information, after re-analysing, I can offer opinion and advice,” he had explained.
While it remains unclear whether these documents were provided to Dr. Fondebrider, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn just days ago had told reporters that the government has indicated its willingness to share the autopsy reports of the teenagers with Dr. Fondebrider. Benn said that Dr. Fondebrider has an option to either view the autopsies, which were video recorded in the interest of transparency, virtually or face-to-face in the presence of the Government Pathologist.
The families of the Henrys related to Stabroek News that they are confident that with the help from the team, the police will be able to solve the crime.
However, they said they were disappointed when they learnt that local authorities were hesitant to share the documents with the Argentine team.
They said this raises questions about the authenticity of the police work in the probes.
“I believed that we would have get justice and we would get it early as the police and our president had said and we were so happy when the Argentina
team came, so I said this thing would have wrap up very fast but after it come and gone and the Argentina come in here and they did not get the support that they came for,” Gladston further stated.
He said that he believes that the team is capable of solving the crime possibly in a matter of days. “The team can help solve the matter. They have solved a lot of crimes. They have solved a lot of unsolved mystery. They got the technology, they could do it within days, one day. Guyana we don’t have the technology, we have to send I don’t know which side and then it will take how long. And when they say three months it will take three years and when it go there we don’t know what happen to it,” Gladston I explained.
Johnson said “they said they need help, the Argentina team came in and they did not accept the Argentina team by giving them reports” while adding “I don’t know what to say about it but I am not going to leave it until I have justice”.
President Irfaan Ali had previously promised that no stone would be left unturned in finding those responsible for the killing.
In September, representatives of Caribbean Community’s Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM IMPACS) and the Regional Security System (RSS) visited to assist local police with the investigations.
Ali had taken a decision to have the team here after dozens of ranks combed the backlands of No. 2 and No. 3 villages, WCB and found nothing of “evidential” value for the investigation into the murders.
Following their departure, a report was prepared. While the findings were not made public, Ali had also told the media that the RSS team has recommended additional work be done.
However, about two weeks ago, Ali had said that the police would advise him on whether additional help is needed in the investigations into the murders.
“…The police would advise me on what additional help is needed and I have told the police that whatever additional help they need and we can facilitate, we will,” Ali had told reporters at State House.
He had been asked whether the government will be accepting the offer of assistance from the EAAF.
Ali said that the government has already facilitated a team from the CARICOM IMPACS and the RSS. He added that he is aware that in “some” components of the investigations, the police have also reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This, he said, is a “continued” collaboration.
