Two days after a couple entered the country, their bullet-riddled bodies were found in the Brasso Forest in central Trinidad.Police last night identified the victims as Jose Vasquez Marcano and Gladys Ortiz, who were killed along the Brasso Piedra Road, Flanagin Town.Camera footage from Piarco Airport, which was reviewed by investigators, showed both victims arrived in Trinidad on Sunday from Margarita, Venezuela. Police believe they were Venezuelans but did not rule out other Latin American countries.
Estate worker Kamal Mahabir found the bodies yesterday, several hundred metres into the forest."When I found her she was lying sideways, like if she was 'brakesing' from something. The second one, he was just lying in the centre of the road there," he said, as he described the scene after he stumbled upon the decomposing bodies.
Sr Supt of Homicide John Daniel said Mahabir was heading to the Manchoon Estate to cut grass when his dog Pressure found the woman's body.He contacted another worker and as they checked further along the road, they found the man's body. The woman, dressed in a red T-shirt and navy-blue jeans, had been shot three times in her left shoulder and chest, while the man, dressed in a blue T-shirt and navy-blue jeans, had been shot six times in the chest and head.
Police including Supt Harry, Supt Abraham, Sgt Toolaram and Cpl Barrow found several 9 mm shell casings and a grey Toyota Corolla, licensed PBU 4473, near the body with a suitcase in the trunk.Officers said the car had not been reported stolen. It was sent to a police forensic facility in Cumuto for tracing. They suspect that the killers were escaping in the car when a tree fell across the roadway, blocking their path. Several chop marks were found on the tree.
The fallen tree caused a five-hour delay in removing the bodies yesterday. Fire officers had to cut the tree and a work crew which was doing plumbing work at nearby Flanagin Town had to be called in to use its tractor to clear the roadway.Crime scene investigators believe the victims were killed 16 to 18 hours before their bodies were discovered, owing to the state of decomposition. However, heavy overnight rain washed away blood evidence.
Co-owner of the estate Dharmatie Maharaj said no one had worked there on Monday"We don't know the car, we don't know the people who died," she said."This has never happened here before. Usually the only thing you get inside here is when people come to thief from you, but killings, murders and those things, it is the first time it has ever happened."We left for Port-of-Spain and our worker was coming to the estate to work and when he was coming the dog was barking at something on the ground.
"When he looked he saw a body and he was saying, 'I see you, get up.' The person did not respond to him so he called us and said he found a dead person on the estate."We made a report to the Brasso Police Post and when we came in here, there was a next body and a tree that fell next to that car."The motive for the killings is unclear but police believe the visitors were killed by someone they knew.