Derek Achong

Po­lice are seek­ing the pub­lic's as­sis­tance in iden­ti­fy­ing a man whose de­com­pos­ing body was found in a gar­den in Pi­ar­co yes­ter­day morn­ing. Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, around 8.30 am two farm­ers were walk­ing through their plot at Or­ange Grove Road, Pi­ar­co, when they saw the body ly­ing face-down among their crops.

The farm­ers con­tact­ed Arou­ca po­lice.The man of African de­scent, with a cane row hair­style, was clad in red T-shirt, grey shorts and white sneak­ers. Po­lice said there were sev­er­al vis­i­ble marks of vi­o­lence about the body, in­clud­ing a deep chop wound to the neck.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors are work­ing on the the­o­ry that he was killed else­where and dumped in the gar­den. His death has been clas­si­fied as mur­der.Based on the state of de­com­po­si­tion, po­lice said he had been killed over the week­end.

An au­top­sy will be per­formed at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James to­day.The mur­der toll stood at 60 up to late yes­ter­day.Mem­bers of the pub­lic who may have in­for­ma­tion that could help iden­ti­fy the vic­tim are asked to con­tact the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion at 640-5856.ASP Ramkelawan and In­sp Wayne Lawrence of Re­gion Two Homi­cide Bu­reau are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.