The investigation into the murders of Melissa Arokium and her eight-year-old son, Anthony Arokium seems to be at a standstill as the Guyana Police Force has failed to provide any recent update on the matter despite a query from Stabroek News.
Melissa Arokium, also known as Lisa, 30, who operated a shop at her residence at Lot 189 Mangrove Street, Reef, Rose Hall, Corentyne, and Anthony Arokium, 8, a pupil at the Port Mourant Primary School were found dead between 1 pm – 2 pm on August, 23, by Melissa’s younger brother.
Based on photographs that were circulated online of the scene, Melissa was found face down in a pool of blood in her living room with major injuries to her neck, while her son was found on his bed with major injuries to his head and neck along with cuts on his face.
Post-mortem examinations which were carried out revealed that Melissa died due to shock and haemorrhage and incised wounds to the neck, while her son died due to shock and haemorrhage and multiple incised wounds.
Police had initially said that they had arrested four persons including Melissa’s two brothers for questioning. The persons they said were the brother who resided with the victims – Cerrano Arokium called ‘Foody’, a 33-year-old cane harvester; the brother who discovered the body of the victims — Nicholas Arokium, called ‘Nico’, a 26-year-old vendor; the boyfriend of the victim, Shailendra Umrao, a 37-year-old of Belvedere, Corentyne and the neighbour of the victim, Deo Naris, a 38-year-old ‘DJ’ of Mangrove Street, Rose Hall Town, Corentyne, Berbice.
However, Nicholas Arokium had said that he was never arrested. Cerrano Arokium was then released on $200,000 bail and the other two men on $50,000 bail each. Earlier this month, Cerrano and Melissa’s neighbour Naris were re-arrested. However, following their re-arrest, the head of the force’s communication arm, Mark Ramotar said that the suspects were released “after being further interviewed by investigators based on certain information that was obtained.”
According to Ramotar then, investigators were also “patiently awaiting” the results of physical evidence submitted to the Guyana Forensic Laboratory for testing as the probe is ongoing.
A recent query from the Stabroek News saw no feedback from the force as to whether there is any update in the investigation or whether the results for the tests which were being done are back.
Relatives of Arokium and her son yesterday also expressed their frustration to this newspaper as it relates to the handling of the investigation. The deceased’s sister-in-law said, “We are very disappointed. My brother-in-law (Cerrano Arokium) still has to go to the station every day. He is unable to work because of that, we never get back our phone, we never get back the bail money, we never hear back about the fingerprint results, nothing.”
The frustrated woman yesterday continued, “We try to make contact with the Commander and he refuse to take our call or our messages. He never reply…”
The family is once again pleading with the authorities to provide some answers as to the investigation and to continue working to nab the perpetrator(s).
