Prime suspect in murder of attorney consumed pesticide – autopsy

A post mortem performed by Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh on the body of 29-year-old Tony Sulker, prime suspect in the murder of attorney-at-law Richard Layne, has determined that he had ingested a poisonous substance.
This autopsy was performed at the Georgetown Public Hospital mortuary on Monday, and Sulker’s cause of death has been determined as due to pesticide poisoning.

The former police sergeant had been the main suspect in the murder of Richard Layne, whose body was found on Wednesday evening in his car, parked in front of his Durban Backlands home. Layne’s body had borne stab wounds to the neck.
Sulker had reportedly been questioned by the police on Wednesday evening, before subsequently being released with orders to return to CID Headquarters on Friday morning. He had so done, but things took a turn when he was informed that detectives were collecting CCTV footage from cameras along Sherriff Street, Georgetown.
The CCTV footage revealed that, at about 21:00h on Wednesday, Layne and Sulker had been driving in the attorney’s burgundy Jaguar vehicle, PYY 2850, and had made a stop in vicinity of the Kamboat Restaurant on Sheriff Street.
“It was then observed that a male, suspected to be Tony Sulker, dressed in black three-quarter pants and a green jersey, exited the Jaguar car’s back passenger seat and went into Kamboat Restaurant. A short while after, it was observed that Sulker exited Kamboat with a white plastic bag containing what appeared to be Chinese food and entered the car’s front passenger seat. The Jaguar car then proceeded to turn west onto John Street.
“There were no cameras in that area to see where the car had turned. However, at 21:39h, it was observed that the car drove south along Mandela Avenue and then turned east into Hadfield Street, heading towards Durban Backlands,” the police have related.

At about 13:00h on Friday, Layne’s mother contacted the police to report that she was about to leave her deceased son’s residence when Sulker drove into the yard at a fast rate and parked his car in the garage.
The grieving woman sensed that something was wrong, and decided to turn back. As she went into the house, she observed Sulker lying at the door on the bottom flat of the house with what appeared to be vomit and a green substance about his body. The ambulance was summoned, and Sulker was escorted to the GPHC.
An inspection of the suspect’s car unearthed two white bottles with a green liquid substance on the floor of the vehicle. A search was carried out on the house, and the clothing Sulker was seen wearing on the CCTV footage obtained on the night in question was found in a washing machine on the bottom flat of the house, already washed and dried.
Layne and Sulker had been living together for the past four years. However, the motive for Layne’s murder is still unknown.