IT has been more than four years since the brutal slaying of Sheema Mangar, and to date the law enforcement agency seems to be clueless as to who might be responsible for the death of the promising young professional.

The Guyana Police Force (GPF), on Wednesday, said samples taken from Mangar had to be re-sent to Brazil for DNA testing and they “expect that result shortly” after “some mix-up” which delayed the process, yet again.

DEAD: Sheema Mangar

Similar samples were sent to Trinidad and Tobago after samples which were sent to Jamaica after Mangar, a former Demerara Bank employee, was brutally killed on September 11, 2010.

Mangar was run over by a car on North Road, close to Camp Street after she struggled with the driver to recover a cell phone which had been taken from her.

At the time, she was at North Road and Camp Street, in Georgetown, awaiting transportation when her Blackberry cell phone was snatched from her. The 21-year-old woman gave chase after the snatcher who entered a motor car that drove off and she placed herself in front of the vehicle in an effort to stop it but was run over and dragged several feet before the vehicle sped away.

Public-spirited citizens rushed her to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), from where she was transferred to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital and died there the next day.

Initially, two suspects had been held but were later released.
However, investigators took parts of the retrieved fabric she was wearing from under the getaway car for examination.

Since then, the Police Force has come in for frequent criticisms by Mangar’s family and others over the sloth in the probe and the failure to produce DNA results from what was thought to be critical evidence.

In fact, there have been glaring issues with the inefficient handling of Mangar’s DNA samples, so much so that even President Donald Ramotar and Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee were forced, in the past, to express their frustrations with the seemingly deliberate sloth in the probe.

After Mangar’s death which spawned nationwide mourning, potential evidence was dispatched overseas to be tested.

CLOSE INTEREST
On May 23, 2013, the Ministry of Home Affairs, in a press release, promised to maintain a close interest in the matter, adding that it shares the sentiments of the grieving parents and relatives and wished to see it brought to a closure to the satisfaction of the Mangar family.

The ministry, at the time, said it was of the view that, “by now, more progress should have been made in this matter and maintains that this crime would be, ultimately, solved by the Guyana Police Force as has been done with so many other serious crimes.”

The ministry said it reconfirmed that two submissions were made to the Barbados Forensic Laboratory, on November 5, 2010 and August 30, 2011, respectively.

A report on the first submission was received in August 2011 when a GPF representative travelled to Barbados to make a second submission.

According to the ministry, it was later revealed that the Barbados Forensic Laboratory recommenced operations in late 2011, having been closed for repairs from 2009. But it continued to accept submissions.

We must note that in all murder cases, the police would identify the ‘year and day rule.’

He explained that whoever might have committed those crimes/murders, the day on which they are arrested and the date on which the offence was allegedly committed, arriving at ‘the year and day.’

He stated that like every murder investigation sometimes the trail goes cold for sometime but that doesn’t mean it is closed, recognising that the family needs closure.

Former Crime Chief, Seelall Persaud, who is now Acting Commissioner of Police, had reported to this publication that nothing new has surfaced, to date, since the November 26, 2013 disclosure, when the Police Force was in receipt of the results of a DNA sample, sent to Barbados for testing earlier in that year, to aid in Mangar’s murder probe.

He had stated that following the negative match, they do not have any suspect but, once new information is received, the investigations will continue. --- (Michel Outridge)