FOLLOWING the execution-style murder of East Coast Demerara taxi driver, Sean De Freitas Sookdeo on Tuesday morning, police said they are still investigating but no arrests have been made yet.
Deputy Commissioner of Police “Law Enforcement’ Seelall Persaud told the Guyana Chronicle that sleuths are conducting interviews with persons, who were in contact with Sookdeo prior to his homicide and they are also trying to locate others with an aim of questioning them also.
He added that they have Sookdeo’s cell phone, which was found on his body and they are tracing several calls he made all geared towards cracking the case.
The bullet-riddled body of the father of one was found by passersby early Tuesday morning at Thomas Lands, Georgetown, apparently dumped there after he was tortured, beaten and killed elsewhere.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law Enforcement) Seelall Persaud told the Guyana Chronicle, initially, that the passport which was found on the body on Tuesday morning is authentic, but his US visa was revoked and they are in the process of doing a background check on Sookdeo, who was well travelled.
He added that based on investigations, so far, detectives discovered that Sookdeo had collected large sums of money for the delivery of several vehicles which he did not import and was threatened by one of those persons, who had handed over money to him recently.
The body of Sookdeo, 25, of Lot 12 Block ‘CC’ Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, was discovered early Tuesday by passersby, who summoned the police.
At first persons thought he was the victim of a fatal accident but when detectives examined the body they saw what appeared to be gunshot wounds and burn marks.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Seelall Persaud on Tuesday said that the body bore four gunshot wounds to the hands, head and abdomen, while there were burn marks to the back of the neck and abdomen.
It is also believed that Sookdeo was severely beaten resulting in a broken arm and tortured before he was killed.
Relatives said that Sookdeo worked as a taxi driver in which he utilised his friend’s car, who is overseas, and once vended clothes from a store but was forced to close shop when the rent became too costly.
He was last seen alive around 19:30hrs when he was overheard telling someone on his cellular phone that he would be meeting them at McDoom Gas Station, Greater Georgetown.
The man’s mother, Sandra Sookdeo said that she last saw him alive on Monday night when he visited her Mon Repos home as usual and he seemed his jovial self, and is sure her son did not have a problem with anyone since he did not mention anything to her.
Sookdeo failed to return to his wife and daughter Monday night and it was then she telephoned his parents to enquire of his whereabouts after calls and text messages to his cell phone went unanswered, which was not the norm.
Alicea Sookdeo called Sookdeo’s mom at about 00:45hrs to report he did not go home and there they began searching for him.
It was when his sister, who lives in McDoom got up early Tuesday morning and found his car parked at the side of her yard, and informed the others, but it was locked and he was nowhere in sight.