Dismembered body… Buxton butcher is notorious wanted criminal from Berbice

- two other suspects captured 

The brutality of the act has registered itself in the minds of many people, most of them questioning

Murder mastermind, Imran Ramsaywack, gave his name as Kevin Jones

who could be so sick, mentally, to kill a woman and then dismember her. Well the sick mind is that of notorious Berbice gang member, Imran Ramsawack, who masterminded the entire operation that led to the brutal murder of United States-based Guyanese trader, Samantha Benjamin. The woman’s dismembered body was discovered on the Annandale foreshore, East Coast Demerara, two Thursdays ago and it took investigators close to a week before they could solve a piece of the puzzle, thanks to the help of the woman’s relatives. On Tuesday last they arrested a young man, who was occupying the house in which Benjamin spent her last days. The suspect, who gave his name to investigators as Kevin Jones, claimed that he was a labourer who was hired to rear chickens on the said premises. No one questioned why he had left his home in Berbice to come to Buxton to work on a small chicken establishment. But he remained there for four months, playing the role of an innocent labourer, before his true colours came shining through. It turned out that the “innocent labourer” could not resist the temptation to go back to the criminal lifestyle he tried to leave behind in Berbice when Benjamin moved into the house in which he was staying. At first he befriended the woman and got her to confide in him all her business plans, whetting his appetite for crime once again.

Samantha Benjamin

By that time his radar had already picked up the criminal-minded in the Buxton community and together with two of them, the labourer hatched a plan to relieve Benjamin of her hard earned possessions. Yesterday, this newspaper got word that the labourer in custody was actually Imran Ramsawack, a well known criminal who had fled Berbice after his chief accomplice, Deodat “Pop Corn” Seecharran, was killed in a shootout with police last year. He was recognised from his photograph which appeared in the Friday edition of this newspaper. Armed with the information, a Senior Reporter from this newspaper visited the Cove and John police station where Ramsawack was in custody. Ramsawack who was peering through the barriers of the lock-ups appeared startled when the reporter called out his correct name. “How you know me?” he asked the reporter whom he mistook for a policeman. When the reporter asked him why he had given his name as Kevin Jones to the police he said, “I didn’t want dem fuh know me is who.” He was questioned about his connection to the notorious “Pop Corn” Seecharran but he denied knowing him. “He used to live near me yes but I never been with he. He had he own gang and used to do he own thing,” Ramsaywack said. Realizing that his true identity was now revealed, the young suspect began baring his soul. He gave a detailed account of what transpired before and after the murder of Benjamin. His account had everyone in the station, including those who went there to make reports, riveted. Ramsaywack first made it clear that it was not his intention to kill Benjamin who he said had been very nice to him, since she moved into the house. “Dis lady used to cook and give me food, bro. I didn’t plan fuh kill nobody. She was real nice to me,” he said from behind the barriers of iron door of the lock-ups, breaking into a slight grin. He said that he only planned to rob her after she had revealed some details of her business to him. On Wednesday March 25, he put the plan into motion. He was to get his two accomplices to carry out the operation while he went away to pretend that he knew nothing about it. According to Ramsaywack, his two accomplices came to the house early that morning while Benjamin was in her room and he let them in. Ramsaywack said he went to the kitchen to get some water, while the two accomplices barged into Benjamin’s room and dealt her a lash to her head with a thick piece of wood. He said that he proceeded downstairs to engage a mechanic who had come up just then to fix his motorcycle. Ramsaywack said that minutes later, the mechanic observed blood pouring through the floor. “He ask me, ‘Boy, like you kill somebody up deh or wha?’ And I laugh it off,” Ramsaywack said. He immediately went back upstairs where he claimed he saw Benjamin sprawled on the floor of her bedroom in a pool of blood. He said when he enquired from his two accomplices what had happened they told him that the woman was dead. Ramsaywack said he became angry and he grabbed two bed sheets and tried desperately to mop up the blood, so that no more will drip downstairs to grab the attention of the suspicious mechanic. The suspect said that he subsequently went back downstairs and waited until the mechanic had fixed his motorcycle and they both left the yard. “I went to de front and burn a joint and drink couple Guinness, den I go back in. When I go in de house I see dey drag de woman out to de living room and she two foot and two hand done been in a salt bag next to she,” Ramsaywack said. He said that he told his accomplices that they will have to dispose of Benjamin’s body, since he was fearful that people will come and see her in the house and that he alone would be saddled with her murder. Later that evening, after smoking a few more marijuana joints, Ramsaywack and his cohorts loaded Benjamin’s body into a plastic barrel and fetched it in a wheelbarrow to the foreshore. “Why y’all chop off she head?” the reporter asked. “Yeah, we chop off she head and throw everything in de sea,” Ramsaywack stated. He said that he was planning to go to Linden but the lack of funds prevented his timely escape. “And besides, I didn’t kill she. I didn’t know dat dis would’a get so big,” he said. He claimed that he did not want his ailing mother to know about his activities, since it could have a negative impact on her health. When told that he could spend the rest of his life in prison, Ramsaywack smiled and said, “Well, wah I gon do?” Ramsaywack has given a detailed statement to the police and is expected to be taken before a court soon. He was part of the infamous “Pop Corn” gang, which included the likes of Tameshwar Khemraj called “Ramboo”; Abdulssalam Azimullah called “Sato”;  Davendra Harricharran called “Bara” and Deon Fraser called “Bucko”. He is wanted in Berbice for a number of crimes, including shooting at police officers. Ramsawack had also managed to escape during another robbery where one of his accomplices was captured. He was identified as the man who was with former national junior athlete, Cortez Fraser, when Fraser was captured by residents on April 25, 2014 in a botched robbery at No. 50 Village, Corentyne. Meanwhile, police have almost wrapped up their case following the capture of Ramsaywack’s two other accomplices. One of the suspects, Ritchie Roseman, 16, was captured on Sunday at Vigilance, while the other Zachariah Alexander, 31, was held in a house at Melanie Damishana. Kaieteur News understands that Roseman was held after he tried to jump out of a minibus at Vigilance. According to reports, the suspect had joined the bus at another village and did not realize that it was being driven by a policeman who recognised him. The cop drove the bus to the Vigilance Police Station where he alerted his colleagues that the suspect was inside. Roseman was quickly captured as he tried to escape. This newspaper also understands that acting on information yesterday, the police swooped down on a Melanie Damishana house and apprehended Alexander. The men are expected to be taken before a Magistrate soon.