Over a year after the brutal murders of Melissa Arokium and her eight-year-old son, Anthony Arokium, a security guard of Rose Hall Town, Corentyne, Quincy Hooper was yesterday charged and remanded.
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 2023, 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.
Yesterday police in Berbice filed charges against Hooper and placed him before the Albion Magistrate’s Court.
Hooper, a security guard of Lot 70 Fyrish, was charged with the murder of Melissa and Anthony Arokium on 23rd August 2023 at Reef Rose Hall Town Corentyne.
He appeared before Magistrate Michelle Matthias where he was not required to enter a plea to the indictable charge. He was remanded to prison and will return to court October, 4.
Stabroek News had done several follow ups on the matter with the latest being in July this year when a relative said that no update had been provided to them although they had given investigators certain information. “We give them some information to work on but nobody care.”
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, investigators were also “patiently awaiting” the results of physical evidence submitted to the Guyana Forensic Laboratory for testing as the probe is ongoing.
