Kescia Branche
Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman on Tuesday ruled that there was sufficient evidence for 48-year-old Matthew Munroe to stand trial for the November 7, 2017 murder of Richard Ismael School Teacher Kescia Branche. The Police’s case is that the young woman was dumped from the car belonging to Munroe.
This follows several months of witnesses offering evidence during the Preliminary Inquiry (PI) at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts. Following the prosecution closing its case, Magistrate Latchman determined that there was enough evidence made out against the defendant. As such, she observed that Monroe will have to face trial at the next practicable sitting of the Demerara Assizes.
Munroe had allegedly departed Guyana for the United States of America at some time in November last year, but after spending some time overseas, he returned to Guyana and presented himself to the Criminal Investigations Department in the company of his lawyer. The Police had said that during interrogation, Munroe could not provide information on his whereabouts on the night that Kescia Branche was brutally attacked; and that more so, he failed to give Police information on his missing car bumper.
Branche, who was a resident of Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown, was discovered lying at the corner of Princes Street and Louisa Row in Georgetown on the morning of November 5, 2017. She succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital two days after and a post-mortem examination performed on her body indicated that her death was due to brain haemorrhaging and blunt trauma to the head.
According to reports, Branche had left home for a night of partying. She had left her three-year-old son in the care of a friend, who revealed that Branche told her she had intended to go to Palm Court to meet a male friend.
The teacher had later returned home, but subsequently left again. She had told her friend that she would be home by 02:00h, but never returned.
She was last seen leaving a nightclub on Lamaha Street in the company of two Police ranks. The father of Branche’s child was also arrested after the teacher’s mobile phone had been found in his possession. He and four Cops were questioned about her death, but they were later released on station bail.
