Coldingen Railway murder
– claims he was a nuisance
– “clothes line” led Police to admission
The biological and adopted daughters of 64-year-old Roger Manikam of Section ‘B’, Nonpareil, East Coast Demerara, whose gagged body was found along the Coldingen Railway Embankment have confessed to murdering their father because he was a “nuisance” to them.
A third person, a clerk attached to a magistrate’s court, was also arrested and confessed to being an accessory to murder. Guyana Times understands that members of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) visited the daughters on Monday and a piece of rope that was used as a clothes line assisted them in solving the murder.
Based on information received, detectives became suspicious after they realised that the rope being used as a clothes line in the yard was identical to the one used to secure the plastic found around the man’s head. The Police consequently took the two young ladies into custody.
During interrogation, the two women broke down and gave a detailed account of the murder, which led to the arrest of a third person. The Police are also hunting for a fourth person who is said to have been the transporter.
The two women reportedly told ranks that their father was an alcoholic and would verbally abuse them on a daily basis. They claimed that they were stressed out and knew they had to take drastic measures or else they would have been living in misery all their lives.
They related that they had concocted a plan to get rid of their father and more so, to make it appear as though he was killed on his way home from one of his drinking sprees.
On Saturday night, they reportedly told investigators that they were at home and were already prepared to execute their plan with the help of the teenaged daughter’s boyfriend. They recounted making noise in the kitchen to rouse their father who was sleeping in his room.
When Manikam walked out of his room and headed to the kitchen area to stop them from making the noise, the court clerk reportedly pounced on him from behind, dealing the now dead man one blow to the head with an axe. The man reportedly collapsed and died immediately.
After the trio realised that he was dead, they then proceeded to wrap the man’s head in plastic and secure it with the rope from the “clothes line”. They also bound his hands. After some time, the court clerk telephoned a friend and solicited his assistance in transporting the body to Coldingen Railway Embankment where they dumped it.
They then went back to the home and cleared the area of evidence of the crime, but forgot to remove the piece of “clothes line” that was left on the post.
The detectives came in for high praise for solving the murder.
When contacted, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum told Guyana Times that three persons were taken into custody and have since confessed to being part of the murder. He also stated that a fourth person is being hunted.
According to Police reports, about 06:30h on Sunday, Manikam’s body was discovered with wounds to the head and upper neck by residents in the area.
