Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
More than a month after prison officer Alexander Johnson went missing, a decomposing body believed to be his was found in Barrackpore.
Police officers, villagers, relatives and two Hunters Search and Rescue teams went into a area about two kilometres from Johnson’s home yesterday and found a body hanging from a tree. Due to the state of decomposition, DNA will be required for a positive identity, police said.
Hunters spotted the body on Saturday night and alerted relatives and the police.
Johnson, 35, who was last attached to the Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Centre, left his home at Cumuto Trace North on January 17 without telling anyone where he was going.
The father of four left his car, wallet and other personal belongings.
At the scene yesterday Anastasia Thomas said she knew him well as he was her nephew’s father.
“I know him personally. I see his airline and his ears could confirm that’s him,” she said.
Thomas said a Bible was found on the ground near his body.
Members of Hunters Search and Rescue led by Commander Shamsudeen Ayub spent four days searching for Johnson and spotted someone they believed to be him in the area where the body was found. However, the man ran on seeing them.
Ayub said: “Alexander Johnson had some small problems but we not going into that. But, it very hard to know that today his body was found.”
He said Johnson’s wife and cousins believe it is his body.
Ayub said the body appeared to be burnt but that might have been because of a bush fire.
In a previous interview, Johnson’s mother, Michelle, said he was the eldest of her three children and was a quiet and responsible individual. She said he was supposed to have reported for duty the day he went missing but never got there.
Barrackpore police are investigating.