The family of Leonard Reece and Ronald Wong, the two men who were killed at Three Friends Mines, Coomacka in Region 10, last weekend, believes that there was a third individual involved.
Police Commander Hugh Winter told Stabroek News on Saturday that investigators were recently advised to conduct further investigations into the incident.
Winter said details about what exactly transpired remain unknown. As such, he said the police are yet to establish whether the incident was a case of a double murder or a murder/suicide.
Two persons were arrested during the probe but they have since been released, Winter added.
Reports revealed that Reece and Wong had been living together since Wong’s release from prison in April.
Wong, who is said to have been of unsound mind and had special needs, was previously incarcerated after being convicted of attempted murder.
It is suspected that he chopped Reece about his body although it is unclear how he suffered similar wounds. One of Reece’s arms was severed by his assailant.
The police had said that Maurice Reece received a call from his niece, Marilyn Lyckerish, and was informed that his nephew had chopped his brother.
He then contacted his brother-in-law, Walter Reece, who also related the same story to him.
He subsequently went to the Mackenzie Police station and made a report, the police added.
According to the police, the Chairman of Three Friends Mines, who lives about two houses away from Leonard, mentioned that she was awakened at about 1.15 am last Saturday by sounds from the now deceased man’s house.
She immediately went out on her verandah and she said she saw Leonard’s son, Elvis, jumping through the eastern window from Leonard’s house.
The police further noted that the 25-year-old man shouted twice in a loud tone of voice, saying “murder!” This led the chairman to raise an alarm and other neighbours came out and went over to Leonard’s house, where the gruesome discovery of his body was made.
At the time of the discovery, Leonard, who was clad only in boxers, was found covered in blood with several wounds about his body, while Ronald’s body was found face down in a paddle boat in the river with several wounds.
Speaking to Stabroek News on Saturday, a relative, who wished not to be named said that the family remains puzzled about the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
The man explained that Wong worked for Reece on a farm following his release from prison. He said Reece provided food for Wong on a daily basis. However, the relative recalled that several weeks before the incident Wong complained that he was working hard but wasn’t being paid.
“So this problem started some months before. Actually the problem was there before he went to jail…..So whenever he (Wong) talk about it, you know sometimes they would curse him up,” the relative said.
According to the relative, the night before the incident, Wong and Reece retired to bed while arguing. He said relatives did not expect the argument would have escalated to such an extent since it is customary.
The relative added from what he gathered, Wong apparently waited until Leonard retired to bed and attacked him while he was asleep.
The man said that family members who live with the men believed that the incident was premeditated and it was Wong who fired the first chop.
However, what remains unclear is how Wong sustained his injuries.
“….I am confuse as to how he (Wong) got those injuries. Because if somebody is lying down on a bed and you fire a chop and they got chop, there is no way that they could have get up back right away and fire back….That is the reason why we believe there was a third person,” the relative further explained.
