THE body of an East Bank Demerara man who went missing last Monday was on Wednesday discovered floating in the Demerara River off New Hope, bloated and bearing marks of violence.

Dead is Trevor Melville, 51, also called “Wrong Turn” of Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara. Melville who hails from Matthew’s Ridge, North West District, had been residing at the home of his sister, Thelma Charles, for several years, but would very often visit another sister, Jenny, who lives at Lot 19, New Hope, also on the East Bank Demerara.
His fearful and deeply distraught sister Thelma recalled that on Monday afternoon around 16:30 hours, Trevor left her home to visit Jenny and her family, but as night approached and she did not see him return, she phoned Jenny who confirmed that he had never reached her home. They immediately became concerned since it was not like him to “sleep out” or even stay away from the home without letting them know where he was.
Together, the concerned family members mounted a search which took them to Friendship Village, where they gathered he had dismounted from a bus and entered the yard of a man he had previously performed weeding and other chores for.
When questioned, the man acknowledged having seen Trevor, but claimed that he hid from him, since he would normally want to buy a “quarter” and imbibe. But sources, on condition of anonymity, claimed that they saw Trevor go into the man’s yard around 17:30 hours, but never saw him come out. They insisted it was the last place they saw him.
Based on the information the missing man’s relatives received, his sisters, Thelma and Jenny, along with his children and nephews all mounted a search of the village, enquiring of almost every household, but it yielded nothing.
They finally returned home, where they spent a restless night and the following day, lodged a “missing persons” report with the Grove Police Station. The police advised them to keep searching and promised that should they receive any information about his whereabouts, they would call the family.
However, Jenny claimed she became suspicious about the information the businessman in Friendship had given them. She said: “On Tuesday morning, I don’t know what was carrying me there, but I went straight back to the man’s place.” She claimed he maintained his story about hiding from “Wrong Turn” (Trevor), which was that he did not want to sell him alcohol.
She said that on Tuesday night, the search party returned to the man’s home and strangely, his home, quite unlike others at Christmas time, was in darkness. “We nervously continued searching. This time, flashing our flashlight from side to side of the road, but it was all in vain,” Jenny said.
On the third day, Wednesday, driven by compulsion, Jenny and other family members paid another visit to the businessman’s premises and he insisted that Trevor was in the village, but had not stopped by. Meanwhile, other residents said they did not see him.
Around 12:30 hours that same day, the businessman headed back to Jenny’s home at New Hope and on arriving there asked her, “Yuh find Trevor?” and she replied, “No!” At that the man retorted: “The way how Trevor does behave, is the whole of Friendship waan kill he.” The man went away shortly after.
Previously, Trevor worked in the gold- mining interior on his family’s claim, but several years ago had the misfortune of being involved in motor vehicular accidents on about three occasions. On one occasion, he sustained such severe life-threatening head injuries and was on life support systems in the Intensive Care Unit (IC U) of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) for several days. Doctors had almost given him up, but he made a miraculous recovery.
Ever since then, he has been a victim of dementia (forgetfulness) and other head- related abnormalities.
Later in the day on Wednesday the sisters received a phone call from the Grove Police Station, informing them that a body was spotted in the Demerara River and that a family member should accompany them to identify it. Their worst fear was confirmed when his nephew, Errol James and others went out and positively identified the corpse as that of Trevor Melville.
Relatives claimed the man’s face was badly peeled, as though he was dragged for some distance and his neck appeared broken and swollen, among other things.
“Whoever did it and for whatever reason, I know that my brother was murdered and he did not deserve to die that way. He was brain damaged and suffered broken bones in multiple accidents and still survived. Why should someone come and kill our brother now?” the sisters asked as they broke down and wept bitterly.
Police are continuing their investigation and an autopsy is expected to be performed on Monday, after which the body will be released to the relatives for burial.

(By Shirley Thomas)