KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice are seek­ing the pub­lic’s as­sis­tance to iden­ti­fy a de­com­pos­ing body found float­ing in a Bar­rack­pore riv­er yes­ter­day.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors are un­sure about the gen­der of the corpse or a pos­si­ble cause of death due to the ex­tent of the de­com­po­si­tion. How­ev­er, they have dis­missed re­ports that the body might be miss­ing prison of­fi­cer Alexan­der John­son as the corpse had a miss­ing ring fin­ger that ap­peared to be an old am­pu­ta­tion.

John­son, 35, of Cu­mu­to Trace North, dis­ap­peared af­ter leav­ing home around 9.30 am on Jan­u­ary 17. He left his sil­ver Nis­san Ti­i­da, mo­bile phone, wal­let and wed­ding ring at home. Po­lice are con­tin­u­ing to search for him.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­port, a vil­lager was walk­ing along Oropouche Trace North around 3 pm when he saw the body float­ing near the bridge cross­ing. He con­tact­ed Bar­rack­pore po­lice who vis­it­ed the scene and con­firmed the in­for­ma­tion. De­tec­tives from the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions Re­gion Three (HBI) re­spond­ed and took state­ments while crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors processed the area.

The body will be tak­en to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, for stor­age and an au­top­sy. How­ev­er, in­ves­ti­ga­tors have to as­cer­tain the iden­ti­ty first.
Any­one with in­for­ma­tion can con­tact the Bar­rack­pore Po­lice Sta­tion at 654-0609  or the HBI at 652-0495.