The decomposed body of a miner was on Monday last found in a shallow grave at Karrau Backdam, Mazaruni, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).
The miner has been identified only as Kevin, also called “Fine Thyme”. Police have since confirmed that the man’s body bore several chop wounds and two men were taken into custody to assist with the probe.
Reports are the now dead man and two others went to the mining pit to “wash down” gold after which they went for a drink. This was on April 7.
However, in the midst of consuming alcohol, the owner of the mining camp accused “Fine Thyme” of stealing raw gold and this led to an altercation. Persons intervened and the two men went their separate ways, but ended up back at the same mining camp.
At the mining camp, the owner collected a cutlass and dealt Kevin several blows to the body while he was asleep in the hammock. The other suspect in custody told Police that owing to the chop wounds, Kevin fell out of the hammock, but he was too “drunk” to help him and might have fallen asleep.
He claimed that when he woke up, he did not see Kevin and thought that he had left the camp following the incident. It was not until the man’s body was found, he realised that the man had died.
F Division (Interior Locations) Commander Rabindranauth Budhram, when contacted, told this newspaper that investigations were ongoing, noting the 51-year-old owner of the camp, of Fourth Avenue, Bartica and another miner, were being interrogated.
He also noted that although one of the miners in custody witnessed the chopping incident, he failed to lodge a report with the Police. The owner of the camp also did not report the incident.
Police believe that the story told by the miner in custody has some loopholes and are of the view that the two men might have buried the man’s body after they realised that he had stopped breathing. The Commander said other information pertaining to the deceased was not available.
