-car impounded, suspects lead cops to bloodstained sheet

When a young marketing agent got a call last Saturday night to help a friend ‘jump-start’ a car, he

Dead: Roger Manikam

immediately drove to Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara to assist.
But what the 25-year-old discovered was that the friend wanted help with the gruesome task of transporting and dumping the body of an elderly man the friend had murdered.The victim was 64-year-old pensioner Roger Manikam, axed to death in his home, reportedly after being lured out of his bedroom by his biological daughter and 12-year-old step-daughter.

That’s the story that police are being told by the marketing agent, who detectives detained on Monday night in connection with Manikam’s murder.Lawmen have also impounded the young man’s car, even as they check the vehicle for blood and other forensic evidence.
Police are said to be already in possession of the axe that was used to kill Manikam, as well as bloodstained sheets and other material that the killers used to clean the victim’s kitchen after murdering him.
These items were recovered yesterday after the ‘transporter’ and his 18-year-old friend took detectives to an area some 300 yards from the spot at Coldingen, East Coast Demerara, where they had disposed of the body.

A shopkeeper also told investigators that the two friends had recently bought detergent from her.Along with the two friends, the slain pensioner’s 18-year-old daughter and stepdaughter, said to be 12, are also in custody.The older girl, whose boyfriend reportedly did the killing, has also confessed to her involvement in the plot, but Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum indicated that detectives wanted to gather as much evidence as they could before charging the suspects.According to the young marketing agent, on Saturday night he received a call from his 18-year-old friend, who said that Manikam’s car needed a jump-start. But on arriving at Manikam’s home, the friend took him to the pensioner’s kitchen, where he saw the elderly man lying dead.

The marketing agent said that he then assisted his friend in wrapping the body and placing it in the back seat of his car. They then dumped the body on the Coldingen Railway Embankment.The young killers had apparently hoped that police would believe that robbers had killed Manikam. The elder girl had repeatedly told detectives and a Kaieteur News reporter that her father always walked with money and was carrying over $100,000 when he was murdered.She had also said that Manikam would usually leave home without telling anyone.

The teen said she last saw her father alive at around 20:00 hrs on Saturday, just before retiring to bed with her step-sister.But detectives became suspicious when they revisited the scene on Monday and observed that a length of clothesline at Manikam’s home was similar to the length of cord that the killers had used to tie their victim, after wrapping up the body in plastic.The repeated suggestions that the victim was carrying “a lot of money” also made investigators suspect that individuals were trying to make them believe that robbers had killed Manikam. They began to focus their attention on two teenage girls and the older girl’s 18-year-old boyfriend. After being subjected to intense questioning, the elder girl eventually confessed.

According to reports, the girls alleged that the pensioner had subjected them to years of emotional abuse, including threatening to put them out. The older girl also reportedly said that her father had taken a large sum of money that was awarded to her.Last week, the girls and and18 year-old male friend hatched a plan to kill Manikam.

On Saturday night, the two girls reportedly went into the kitchen and began to make a commotion to lure the pensioner out of his bedroom.
When an angry Manikam eventually headed to the kitchen to berate the girls, the 18-year-old boyfriend of one of the teens chopped the pensioner on the head with an axe.They then contacted the other male friend, who took the body in a car to the Coldingen Railway Embankment.