Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Hor­ror gripped res­i­dents of Elm Street in Pleas­antville on Sun­day, when the fae­ces-cov­ered naked body of a bar­tender was pulled out of a sep­tic tank short­ly be­fore mid­night. Richard Mo­hammed, 29, was found crouched at the bot­tom of a green sep­tic tank, lo­cat­ed next to his par­ents' home at Blitz Vil­lage, Pleas­antville. The body bore no marks of vi­o­lence. Neigh­bours spec­u­late that Mo­hammed may have com­mit­ted sui­cide by jump­ing in­to the tank. How­ev­er, po­lice said this was high­ly un­like­ly as the cov­er of the sep­tic tank was fas­tened at the time when Mo­hammed was found.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said Mo­hammed was last seen alive at around 4.30 am on Sun­day. His moth­er, An­gela, said he worked as a bar­tender at Ris­ing Star Recre­ation Club and when­ev­er he came home, he would wake her up to open the door. "Last night he did not wake me up. I thought he was prob­a­bly out with his friends so I didn't wor­ry. I got dressed and went to church," An­gela sobbed.She said as the day pro­gressed, Mo­hammed still did not re­turn. She lat­er saw his clothes in a bas­ket near the sep­tic tank but did not be­lieve her son's corpse was sub­merged in­side.

By late evening, younger broth­er Ce­de­no Mo­hammed went to the Mon Re­pos Po­lice Sta­tion to file a miss­ing per­son re­port. Ce­de­no said he re­mem­bered hear­ing a strange sound ear­li­er that morn­ing near the sep­tic tank.

"It sound­ed as if the tank cov­er was be­ing re­moved. I looked out the win­dow but did not see any­thing. I told my grand­fa­ther about it and around 7.30 we de­cid­ed to open the tank," Ce­de­no re­called. The broth­er, who showed lit­tle emo­tion, said he used a gar­den hoe and be­gan prob­ing the depths of the cesspit. That was when he felt some­thing sol­id at the bot­tom of the tank.

He alert­ed po­lice and a team of of­fi­cers led by In­sp Lomey, Cpl Ra­goo and PCs Sul­li­man and Gar­raway vis­it­ed the scene. In the pres­ence of hor­ri­fied neigh­bours, who de­fied cur­few or­ders, un­der­tak­ers re­trieved Mo­hammed's body from the sep­tic tank. The law­men hosed it down be­fore plac­ing it on a stretch­er. A neigh­bour who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said Mo­hammed was de­pressed be­cause his girl­friend had can­cer. How­ev­er, rel­a­tives de­nied this was true. An­gela and Ce­de­no said Mo­hammed was nev­er a sui­ci­dal per­son. His grand­fa­ther Lennox Legall said he did not know how the young man died. An au­top­sy is ex­pect­ed to be per­formed at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre. Po­lice said they have not ruled out foul play. In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.