THE Guyana Police Force has been assured by a laboratory in Trinidad and Tobago that the test results on the samples of a decomposed female which was sent to them on Thursday will be returned in a timely manner. This is according to Commissioner of Police (acting), Seelall Persaud during an invited comment by this publication.

The samples which are being talked of are that of the decomposed remains of a female which were discovered in a clump of bushes in Turkeyen in July and which are suspected to be that of a missing school teacher, Nyozi Goodman who was missing since June of this year.
Persaud said that the Force decided to send the samples to Trinidad based on technical discussions and the fact that there have been some improvements and investments in the laboratory in that country.
The police stayed clear from sending the samples to the same country they had sent the samples of bank employee, Sheema Mangar which to date have not returned to these shores.
The Top Cop related that personnel from the recently commissioned laboratory here and their counterparts in Trinidad and Tobago had their own discussions on various aspects of the testing.
With that aside, Guyana would usually use Brazil for the testing of samples but that country was overlooked this time around in this case. Other countries the police force used in the past were Jamaica, Barbados and in some cases the United States of America whenever the United States had an interest in the case.
This is the first time that the lab in Trinidad will be used to test samples coming from Guyana and if all goes as according to plan with respect to the timely returning of the samples it is likely or possible that much consideration would be given for the continued use of the lab in that country for sample testing.
Persaud said that the Guyana Police Force rank who accompanied the sample to Trinidad is not staying in that country until the tests are completed. He said that assignment was just for the rank to escort the samples to the country and return.
Following the discovery of the remains the government pathologist was forced to conduct the post-mortem at the location where the remains were found because of the state of decomposition. Family members were convinced that the remains are that of the missing school teacher.
Her mother later identified a belt and underwear that were found close to the remains as that of her daughter’s but the police are still to carry out their tests to be certain. DNA samples were taken from family members to be tested against the samples of the remains to ascertain if the decomposed body which was found is indeed that of Goodman.
The teacher was last seen after she accompanied her students to a game of football under floodlights at one of Guyana sporting facilities in Georgetown.
Written By Leroy Smith