Several ‘cold cases’ are expected to be reopened by the Major Crimes Unit of the Guyana Police Force, including the murders of Sheema Mangar and Trevor Rose, while the file on the 23-year-old case of Monica Reece will be reviewed, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum announced yesterday.
In brief remarks to members of the media following yesterday’s Annual Police Parade, commemorating the anniversary of the Guyana Police Force, Blanhum noted that the decision to revisit these cases follows calls made by members of the public, and particularly by relatives of the victims.
“We have relatives of deceased who would have lost their loved ones, maybe five to ten years ago, who have been coming to CID Headquarters and have indicated their interest in having these cases reopened,” Blanhum said.
He added that these persons have been assured that steps have been taken to reopen cases where the police are sure they can make headway.
He further noted that while the unit has received requests for an estimated 20 cases, at present it is actively looking into an estimated five cold cases, including that of Mangar and Rose.
When quizzed about the possibility of revisiting the decades-old case of Reece, Blanhum revealed that he recently requested the case file. “…When we locate that file, we will be analysing the evidence and also we will make a determination and make contact with the police legal advisor. And we know for sure that the public, they have been advocating but I would not be too ambitious and tell you that look we are going to solve the case, we have to look at the evidence, analyse and review those statements and then engage the police legal advisor on the way forward,” he said.
Front burner
In the meantime, Blanhum noted that Mangar’s case has been placed on the front-burner.
In September of 2010, Mangar, an employee of a city bank, was said to have been waiting to catch a minibus to head home when her phone was snatched from her. The young woman pursued the thief, who jumped into a car and ran her down when she tried to stop him from fleeing.
The car dragged Mangar from the Bedford Methodist Church at Camp Street and North Road to the intersection of Camp and Church streets and she died while receiving medical attention at St Joseph Mercy Hospital the following day.
The Caribbean American Domestic Violence Awareness (CADVA) group recently began lobbying authorities to reopen the case, in light of the police force’s recent success in bringing charges in the almost six-year-old murder of Babita Sarjou. Skeletal remains suspected to be those of Sarjou’s, who had been reported missing for five years, were unearthed at the residence of her estranged husband. The man has since been charged with the murder.
Meanwhile, Blanhum had only recently told Stabroek News that the file on Rose’s murder was likely to be reopened. He had said that investigators also intend to once again interview the witnesses who were present at the time of the murder. “We are hoping that at the end of this process, we will be able to prosecute the killer, who is still walking free,” he stated.
Rose was killed on the morning of January 26, 2014, after a lone gunman, in a heavily-tinted vehicle, opened fire on the car in which he was travelling at Eccles, East Bank Demerara, hitting him five times.
Also injured in the shooting were Rose’s driver, Troy Nieuenkirk, and Rose’s companion, Latoya Towler.
Rose and Towler were said to be heading to a house in Eccles when the shooting occurred. The police had said that Nieuenkirk was driving his car when another vehicle drove up alongside and the driver accosted him about how he was driving. “An argument ensued, during which the driver of the other vehicle came out with a firearm and discharged a number of rounds at Nieuenkirk and the other persons in his vehicle after which the perpetrator escaped,” the police had added.
There were initial claims that Rose’s murder was as a result of a road rage, but other motives have been suggested since then. Two persons were subsequently held for questioning but were later released.
Meanwhile, the death of Reece, a 19-year-old security guard, has been seen in some quarters as one of the major events in the rise of crime in the 1990s. Reece’s body was dumped from a speeding pickup vehicle in the vicinity of the Geddes Grant building (now Courts) on Main Street, Georgetown on April 9, 1993. The police had picked up a suspect and questioned him and also detained a vehicle he sometimes drove, but shortly after, the lack of evidence caused him to be released and the vehicle was returned.
Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud yesterday noted that the force’s decision to revisit cold cases comes as a result of the public’s support and belief that the Guyana Police Force is capable of solving those cases.
In response to questions from reporters after the route march, he said, “We have received praises from all quarters, some of which we never got praises from; we have moved up from receiving only criticism to now receiving praises. Society seems to have this belief that even very old cases, we can now take up… and solve them.”