A preliminary analysis has confirmed the presence of cyanide in the substance found in the vehicle where the bodies of Paishnarine ‘Ritchie’ Hansraj and Justin Teixeira were found in the parking lot of the Marriot Hotel last Saturday, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“Analyses of stomach contents will be concluded at laboratories overseas to confirm whether in fact this substance containing cyanide was indeed ingested,” the ministry said in a brief statement yesterday afternoon.
The statement was issued hours after Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn told reporters that local authorities were expecting results within a week’s time from the testing of the substance.
The Guyana Forensic Science Laboratory (GFSL) had informed the police that the substance is suspected to be sodium cyanide, but the local lab was unable to conduct testing to confirm the suspicion.
As a result, samples of the “whitish, hard” substance were sent overseas for testing on Monday.
Questioned by Stabroek News on the sidelines of an event yesterday morning, Benn refused to identify the country to which the samples were sent for testing. However, he said the results are expected within a week. “I had a meeting with one side of the affected parties and I said that we expect to get a position within a week’s time,” Benn said.
Pressed further as to what prevented the GFSL from conducting that specific testing, Benn said the laboratory is not accredited for it. “….The lab had to be accredited so that was one of the issues. The reagents and the other issues in relation to do that specific test were not resident at the forensic labatory. It was not among the range of tests that they would have been doing…,” he explained.
According to Benn, efforts were made to source “some” rapid testing kits, one of which was expected to arrive either sometime last night or this morning.
The men’s bodies were discovered in Teixeira’s vehicle, PAC 2607, around 00.15 hrs last Saturday in the Marriott Hotel parking lot, at Kingston by a hotel staffer. Teixeira was a guest at the hotel.
The GPF in a press statement had said that ranks of the Brickdam Police Station were summoned to the scene.
On arrival, a hotel worker related to them that around 23.30h last Friday, he received a call from Teixeira’s mother, who related that he was experiencing a seizure, the police said. The mother requested that someone check on him.
As a result, the worker told the police that he immediately dispatched another employee to check on Teixeira, who was staying on the sixth floor. However, his room was empty.
“The employee then went to Teixeira’s vehicle, where he observed Teixeira sitting in the driver’s seat. All of the windows of the vehicle were half-way down,” the release stated.
It noted that the employee then opened the front passenger door of the vehicle and discovered Hansraj, sitting in a crouched position. Both men appeared to be motionless, the police added.
After the police were summoned, the men were pronounced dead at the scene. There were no visible marks of violence on their bodies.
Autopsies performed on the men’s remains also failed to establish their cause of death. As a result, stomach contents were removed from both bodies and handed over to police investigators.
Benn confirmed that these samples will also be sent overseas for toxicological testing.
The bodies are yet to be buried.
