The skeletal remains found at Wisroc, Linden, just over a week ago are suspected to be those of a pensioner who went missing last November and his family is now hopeful that DNA tests will provide closure.
The skeletal remains were discovered on Saturday, January 30th, at Third Phase Wisroc, Linden, by a farmer.
Tracy Campbell, 30, in a telephone interview, told Sunday Stabroek that her family believes that the remains are those of her father, Ivor Campbell, 71, and she and a brother have since provided the police with DNA samples for testing.
Tracy said her family has not been permitted to collect the skeletal remains because the police have to investigate to confirm that the remains are indeed those of the missing man.
Police Commander of Region Ten, Superintendent Hugh Winter, told this newspaper that thus far the investigation is inconclusive as the police are awaiting the results of the DNA tests to identify the man. He said that the post-mortem examination was performed on Monday and it was concluded that it is inconclusive given the circumstances.
Cognisant that it could take months before the results are received, Tracy said her family is hoping that the investigation won’t be drawn out so that her father can be laid to rest. She and other family members are convinced that the remains are those of her father as they were clad in the clothes that he was wearing at the time he was last seen alive.
“It’s a bit of a confusion to know you took a while to find him, then you find the little remains that were found [and] you can’t even have it. Everything that we said he was wearing we found him with. The watch, the jersey, the pants but still that is not enough,” she said, before later adding that the position that the skeleton was found in is similar to how her father would sleep.
She, however, acknowledged that the police have to do their work to get the facts before a pronouncement can be made.
Tracy said her father went missing on November 13th, 2020 at around 9.30 am. Her mother was told by one of their sons that Ivor was asking for cigarettes and after being told that there were none, he disappeared. The family assumes that he left in search of cigarettes. The police were alerted of the man’s disappearance and several searches were conducted in the area where the family assumed the man might be.
Diana Lam, 47, of Third Phase, Wisroc, Linden, made the discovery of the skeletal remains at the land where she plants cash crops. She noted that many persons plant there but people don’t go into the swampy area. “I went to do some cleaning up to plant and upon chopping the bushes, the bushes [weren’t] very thick, so, I realised that something wasn’t right. [Then] I saw the skull. Upon looking closely I saw the whole skeleton there. I didn’t notice anything strange like birds or any foul smell like animals or nothing. I didn’t notice anything strange,” Lam related, before adding that she asked her son to call the police.
The woman added that she did not understand what anyone would be doing in the area.
Tracy Campbell said one of her friends saw a post on Facebook about the discovery and contacted her. “The area where he was found is in the vicinity of where we live. It’s not in the same exact path but it’s in the same area,” she told this newspaper. She said that after reading the post, she became confident that her father was found because of the clothes that were described in the post. “The clothes [he was found in], I knew that it was a great chance that it’s him,” she said.
According to the woman, her family has not taken the news “easy” considering that they were looking for the man and now that he might have been found, he isn’t alive and “is bare remains”. “It was kind of closure, you found him because the whole idea of living not knowing where he could have gone – because some persons don’t find back their relative – so the fact that we know that we found him it is a relief but then the state that we found him in, it is heart rending,” the woman said.
Tracy now constantly wonders if they could’ve found her father alive. She added that while she tries to avoid worst case scenarios, she does wonder if “he was probably by himself, the rain fell, the sun shine. Probably he was hungry, dehydrated.” “Questions upon questions I’m asking myself. It’s a sad thing to know he died so lonely,” she noted.
She said that since the discovery she hasn’t visited the site where the remains were found but her siblings went to area and her sister took a video. For her it is mindboggling that her father would end up in the spot where the remains were found because he was not active and the distance is a bit far from their home. “My father is 71-years-old and for the longest while he was in, as he didn’t go out of the house. He wasn’t so healthy. About two weeks before his disappearance he was a bit senile as in he would say things that didn’t make sense. He’s not somebody that is active in society. He was more at home. Only goes out probably to draw pension with my mom,” Tracy informed.
She said that as he got older he became inactive and never got diagnosed with anything, so she assumed that old age was taking effect, hence his inactivity. In addition, she explained that the area is not somewhere persons would usually go.
