SASCHA WIL­SON

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

A burnt body was dis­cov­ered in the bush­es along Buen In­ten­to Road in Princes Town yes­ter­day morn­ing, send­ing shock­waves through the usu­al­ly qui­et area. 

The charred re­mains were found by a 50-year-old gar­den­er who had gone to the area to pick chadon beni around 8 am. The body was ex­ten­sive­ly burnt, with on­ly a piece of blue trousers left vis­i­ble among the re­mains.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors are cur­rent­ly work­ing to con­firm the iden­ti­ty of the body which was found 200 feet from the road. 

The gar­den­er, who was still vis­i­bly trau­ma­tised hours lat­er, spoke with re­porters but asked that he not be named. Re­call­ing the in­ci­dent, the man said, “While walk­ing through the bush­es I got a scent, and I was see­ing the cor­beau. When I walked down near the riv­er, I saw the cor­beau. When I do so and watch, I saw a foot on the ground.”   

The gar­den­er said he got so fright­ened that he ran home and alert­ed his rel­a­tives who called the po­lice.

“I got the fright of my life. I am still trem­bling ... Near­ly the whole body burn out. The face and chest burn out, and legs have burns. Things are ter­ri­ble in this coun­try. I am still trem­bling right now,” he lament­ed.

He not­ed that the area where the body was found is in­ac­ces­si­ble to ve­hi­cles, sug­gest­ing that those re­spon­si­ble for the mur­der were like­ly fa­mil­iar with the ter­rain.

The dis­cov­ery came just days af­ter 31-year-old Je­re­my David of La Ro­main was re­port­ed miss­ing. David and his ve­hi­cle—a sil­ver-grey Toy­ota Field­er wag­on—have not been seen since the In­di­an Ar­rival Day hol­i­day on Fri­day, May 30.

His moth­er, An­nette Ramkissoon, re­port­ed to po­lice that he left home around 10 am, and since then he has not been heard from and she has been un­able to con­tact him on his cell­phone.

His moth­er was among rel­a­tives who ar­rived at the scene short­ly af­ter the dis­cov­ery. They ap­peared vis­i­bly dis­tressed and de­clined to speak to the me­dia.

Crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors and homi­cide de­tec­tives were on the site for sev­er­al hours, comb­ing the area for ev­i­dence. They processed a near­by house and seized swabs to take for foren­sic test­ing.

Vil­lagers said they did not hear or see any­thing strange in the hours lead­ing up to the dis­cov­ery. A res­i­dent said the area was usu­al­ly qui­et and the dis­cov­ery of the burnt body left the com­mu­ni­ty in a state of shock.

Of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions Re­gion 3 are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.