The soldier who is accused of strangling and dumping the body of an East Canje woman in a drain opposite his house along the Coren-tyne Highway was yesterday remanded to prison after he was charged with her murder.
Corporal Collin Alex Hazell of the Guyana Defence Force appeared before Magistrate Renita Singh at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court where he was charged with the murder of Donalesa Parks, 29, between Wednesday June 29 and Thursday June 30.
An unrepresented Hazell was not required to plead. He will return next to on August 23rd for report.
Parks, a hairdresser, had left home on Wednesday to head to Islington, East Bank Berbice, to meet with a client to do her hair, relatives had told Stabroek News last Thursday.
However, after her client, who was coming from Linden, eventually canceled, Parks reportedly left and headed to Number 1 Village, Corentyne where she met with the suspect at his house.
Her uncle, Mortimer Amsterdam, 56, had explained that they were told that Parks left Islington around 1 pm on Wednesday. “She does do business with the boy [accused]. So he tell she he get detergents to sell and she going to collect it because she does always collect them things and sell it.”
According to the uncle, after Parks’ mother discovered that she did not return home on Wednesday evening, she contacted an aunt and they began searching for her on Thurs-day morning. Eventually, they arrived at the accused’s house where his sister informed them that her brother had left home since early that morning – several hours before they had arrived.
She also told Parks’ relatives that she last saw the deceased woman on Wednesday evening going upstairs with her brother with a bottle of wine.
After receiving this information on Thursday morning, Parks’ relatives proceeded to the main road to await a taxi. Whilst waiting they noticed some of her items in a drain opposite the accused’s house. Upon investigating further, they found Parks’ handbag and a pair of slippers belonging to her, and then eventually her body was discovered in the same drain some distance from the aforementioned belongings.
Relatives of the suspect had also told Stabroek News that he had returned home earlier last week on leave and had informed them that he had to return to his base in two weeks’ time. However, when he left home in the wee hours of Thursday morning, he informed his sister that he had to go back to base immediately for work.
Hazell, who was stationed at Base Camp Seweyo, Linden-Soesdyke Highway, was placed into custody at the base hours after news broke that the woman’s body was discovered.
The accused during interrogation, while not admitting to committing the act, had told investigators that he will live with the consequences of his action and “whatever will be will be.”
A post-mortem examination done on Parks on Friday last revealed that she died from strangulation.
