Four people appeared virtually before a Scarborough Magistrate on Friday, charged with the murder of Carenage businessman Koongebeharry Jaisarie also known as Jai.
Jaisarie 64, went missing on June 4, after he travelled to Tobago on a one-day business trip.
The accused are Nigel Winchester, 40, of Concordia, Tobago, Dwayne Marcelle 36, of Bethel and Pigeon Point, Kourtney Grayson, 35, a Jamaican national who also resides at Couva and Margaret Waheed-Jattan, 54, of St Augustine, as well as Breeze Hall, Tobago.
Waheed-Jattan is the dead man’s sister-in-law.
It is alleged that Jaisarie was killed due to an ongoing land, property and money dispute.
They were all arrested between June 21 and June 29.
The four were formally charged on Thursday following advice received from Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, SC.
The matter was heard before Magistrate Duane Murray. The accused were not called upon to plead as the charge was laid indictably.
Jaisarie’s body was discovered in a concrete grave in Tobago on June 23.
A party of officers attached to the Homicide Bureau of Investigations, the Divisional Task Force, and the Divisional CID, acting on information, went to Old Milford Road, Lowlands, near the E-Zee Breezy Hotel and Bar, where the corpse was exhumed from an eight foot deep, makeshift grave, at the back of an unfinished church building. The corpse was cast in concrete.
Jaisarie had gone to Tobago on a business trip on June 4. Relatives reported that he was expected to stay at the E-Zee Breezy Hotel. He was last seen alive around 2pm on the same day.
Cadaver dogs were also deployed in the area near the hotel in search of him. The body was found next door.
An autopsy performed on the body was inconclusive because of the state of decomposition.
To date, four murders have been recorded in Tobago for the year.
Charges were laid by the Tobago Homicide Bureau. The foursome are scheduled to reappear in court on July 31.