(Trinidad Guardian) Eleven days after real estate businessman and tutor Linwald Beharry went missing, his body was found in Cachipe Village, Moruga, on Friday night.
While it was not the news they wanted, grief-stricken relatives are relieved his body was found.
Narissa Beharry, his sister, said it was an emotional time for the family as they are coming to terms with the circumstances of his death.
She said that she learned that her brother was on his way to a doctor’s appointment.
“A doctor informed us that he got a call around 6.30 am from him. He may have experienced a heart attack the night before. He told him to come to see him around 9 am to check himself at Southern Medical (Centre) but he never made it.”
The woman also said she had no clue that her brother felt so unwell that he needed to seek medical attention.
“He did not tell anybody anything. He was dealing with it on his own. I know he was dealing with pressure issues; his pressure was high. A neighbour said he sounded as though he was in a lot of pain.”
As days went by and Beharry remained missing, people gathered for a candlelight vigil to pray for his safe return.
His sister said the family suffered immensely as they held onto hope.
“In the search for him since that time, nieces and nephews have worked tirelessly day and night, nonstop, going through footage. It was an excruciating, painful 11 days, and tiring. The fact that they found the body, he died naturally and offered some amount of closure, but it did not lessen the pain.
“In the middle of service yesterday, we were literally down on our knees begging for an answer, and that’s when we got the first call that they found the car. We went there from the middle of the service. I saw the police vehicle, thinking the police were there. Not knowing they were waiting for the service to end to tell us.”
She said the family was waiting for an autopsy report, even though preliminary examination does not seem to suggest that any foul play was involved. Police reportedly said that Beharry’s seat belt was still on while he was wearing his jewelry.
She believes her brother, who was a former naval officer, purposely guided the car off the road to ensure nobody else got hurt.
“Knowing him, we have been saying this all along, even though he was getting a heart attack on the road, he would have tried to veer that vehicle off the road not to harm anyone. That is the way he was.”
Roxanne Joseph, Beharry’s friend, recalled how he loved to mentor young people in real estate. She said he believed it to be a great business to help individuals become successful.
“To understand who this man was and is—a genuine, generous, gentle giant he is in all our lives. Forever. It is like the tree in the forest that fell, even though no one was there when it fell. We felt it, we heard it. We are grateful for just knowing and finding him and being able to lay him to rest.”
Beharry lived alone at Bois Jean Jean, Moruga, after his divorce.
There was a manhunt led by the Anti-Kidnapping Squad, police officers from the Moruga Police Station, and Vallence Rambharat’s Hunters Search and Rescue Team to find him.
According to a police report, around 6.34 pm on Friday, a resident of Cachipe Village contacted the Moruga Police Station and informed officers that a body was found in some bushes 150 feet off the road.
The individual was reportedly picking chadon beni at the back of his house when he discovered the body, later identified as Beharry, in the driver’s seat of a black Mercedes Benz.
The body was in an advanced state of decomposition, slumped over the passenger side.
A district medical officer visited the scene and observed no marks of violence.
A post-mortem is ex-pected to be conducted at the Forensic Science Cen-tre in St James tomorrow.