RSS team made progress during time here – President Ali

WCB teens’ murders

…Police await results of DNA

As investigations continue into the murders of the three West Coast Berbice (WCB) teenagers – Isaiah and Joel Henry, and Haresh Singh, President Irfaan Ali has disclosed that the recent team from the Caricom Regional Security System (RSS) has made some progress.
The mutilated bodies of the two Henry cousins were found in the backdam at Cotton Tree, WCB, about a month ago and days later, Singh’s body was discovered at the Number Three Village, WCB backdam.
Although several persons were arrested, the Police are yet to make a breakthrough in the case. The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has since enlisted international help to solve the gruesome crimes and last week, a team from the RSS visited Guyana.
The five-member team was led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police and comprised officials from countries within the Regional Investigative Management Systems (RIMS). After one week of work, the team departed on Tuesday.
During an interview with Guyana Times on Thursday, President Ali noted: “The RSS team came with a specific mandate to support the Guyana Police Force. I was advised that they have made progress and that they’ve assisted the Guyana Police Force in some technical areas… I’m confident that the work they would have done, along with the work the Guyana Police Force continues to do, would bring justice and would see the perpetrators of these crimes brought to justice.”
According to the Head of State, the involvement of the RSS, and the team’s recent visit, is reflective of Government’s commitment to ensuring justice for the three WCB teenagers.
“We have promised swift justice and that is what we are committed to. We have committed ourselves to sparing no resources in ensuring that those who were responsible for these crimes are brought to justice… The Police are making progress, they continue to work aggressively,” he noted.
The President further pointed out that there are more than one team working full time on these investigations and his Government is lending the necessary support.
“I know for sure that they are working on these cases every day, and I know that wherever they require resources and they have reached out to Government, we’ve been assisting in putting together those resources to ensure that they have all the tools at their disposal to bring these persons to justice,” Ali stated.
Meanwhile, Guyana Times was also told that local investigators are currently awaiting the results from the DNA samples to proceed with the case. The samples, which were collected from the crime scenes and from several suspects, were sent to St Lucia for testing.
A Police source related to this newspaper that they were awaiting the results to determine whether to “clear or pin” those persons they have arrested thus far in the probe.
“It doesn’t make sense that we just keep arresting people and we have not yet effectively cleared this set [of suspects],” the source said.
However, the investigator said the Police Force would welcome and would act on any information in relation to the murders.
Isaiah, 16, and Joel, 19, left their Number Three Village home to pick coconuts, but two days later, on September 6, 2020, their butchered bodies were found in the backlands.
And then, on September 9, 2020, 17-year-old Singh was found murdered at the Number Three Village backlands. It is suspected that his death was in retaliation for the murders of the Henry cousins, since he is related to one of the persons initially held by the Police.
While several persons were arrested for the murder of the Henry teens and later released, to date no arrest has been made in relation to Singh’s murder.
Police had explained that the location where the bodies of the Henry boys were found was not the primary crime scene, that is, it is not the location where the young men were killed.
Meanwhile, late last week, the Guyana Police Force had stated that the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropology (Equipo Argentino de Antropologia Forensica-EAAF) is also being engaged to lend assistance to the investigation of the murders of the three teenagers.