6th person arrested as probe into murder of WCB teens intensifies

One day after several men who were last seen with murdered teens, Isaiah and Joel Henry were taken into custody, the police have arrested a sixth person on Sunday as investgiations intensify.

On Saturday, the police stated that five men were arrested as the probe into the gruesome murders of the teens whose bodies were discovered in a coconut field at Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice, on September 6 continues.
On Sunday, however, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum told the Guyana Times that a sixth person was arrested and is being interrogated along with the five others.
Blanhum however, did not divulge detailed information on the investigations but stated that the investigation is active.
Only on Thursday, a 75-member team that combed the backdam at No 2 and No 3 Villages, WCB, for evidence in relation to the murders of Isaiah and Joel Henry came up empty-handed.
The Guyana Police Force in a release to the media on Friday related that the team comprised of Police ranks in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), members of the Major Crimes Unit of the Criminal Investigative Department (CID), members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Government pathologist, Dr Nehaul Singh. In addition to the team on foot, aerial assistance was provided by the GDF.
The statement further added that the search commenced at 07:00h and lasted for seven hours but nothing of evidential value to the investigation was unearthed. Nevertheless, the police stated that the detectives are continuing to exhaust all leads as the probe continues.
However, the team once again set out on Friday with the aim of finding the primary crime scene since it was already established that the Henry teens were murdered at one location and their bodies transported to the coconut estate where they were found.

“We are looking for anything that belonged to the boys… some piece of personal item found will assist us a great lot especially with respect to finding the location where the boys were killed,” a source explained.
In addition, the source related that they are also searching for two persons and anyone else who might have been involved in the brutal murders.
Those who were arrested for the double murders were released, but have to report to the Blairmont Police Station on a daily basis.
The badly-mutilated bodies of Isiah and Joel Henry were discovered almost one day after they had gone missing. They had reportedly left their Number Three Village, West Coast Berbice homes on Friday to pick coconuts in the backdam.
Their disappearance prompted family members to launch several search parties to look for them. After hours of searching, the badly-chopped bodies were discovered among the bushes, and were partially covered in mud.
Following the discovery, and in light of the gruesome manner in which the boys were murdered, Cotton Tree residents took to the streets. They blocked the roads and burned debris, all while calling for justice.
Police have, nevertheless, stated that investigators were confronted with some challenges, particularly in relation to accessing the crime scene with the roads being blocked.
However, once the ranks on the ground ensured safe passage for the investigators and crime scene ranks, preliminary findings showed that the bodies of the Henry boys were discovered at a secondary crime scene. As such, forensic evidence was identified, collected, preserved, and submitted to the Guyana Forensic Laboratory for DNA analysis to be conducted.
DNA samples were also collected from the suspects who were in custody and sent for a comparative analysis to be conducted against the forensic evidence collected from the secondary crime scene. The Police Force said that results are expected within three weeks.
The post-mortem examinations (PMEs) conducted on the badly mutilated bodies of Joel and Isaiah found that the teenagers died as a result of haemorrhage and shock owing to the extent of their wounds.
Joel had a total of 18 wounds. It is believed that the fatal wound severed the teenager’s spine between the 1st and 2nd vertebrae. In the case of Isaiah, he also sustained a severed spine, but unlike his cousin, the teenager had no defensive wounds. In addition, Isaiah sustained a number of chop wounds to his head.
It was reported that the teenagers may have been dead for about 36 hours before they were discovered on Sunday, September 6, 2020.