With their red and black attire and some amount of white, residents of Mocha-Arcadia, East Bank Demerara joined with the relatives of 26-year-old Delon Melville to give him a respectable send off and burial in the village on Monday afternoon.Some wore red to signify that the young man’s blood was violently shed while others wore their black and white as a sign of mourning over the loss of a life.A church service was held at the Mocha-Arcadia Church of the Nazarene which Melville had attended, rarely missing a Sunday service or one of the other weekday services.

However, it was a somewhat unconventional send off for the young man whose body was found badly brutalised in the backlands of the village.
Unlike a traditional funeral service that would have the body in the church as the service is carried on, yesterday’s funeral was different.
There were some amount of prayers and singing over the body but that was done at the ground since the stench was unbearable, preventing the relatives from holding it any longer. There was not the possibility of the coffin being opened for viewers to see the last remains of the 26-year-old.
It was after the burial that the relatives and other mourners gathered at the church to carry on the home going service which under normal circumstances would be done prior to the burial.
Even though there are reports that the killers of the young men might be from the village or that persons from the village knew of the killing, almost the entire village showed up to offer their sympathy to the relatives of the young Christian villager.
Up to yesterday the police have not been able to charge anyone for the death of the young man even though several persons were held for questioning.
It is not clear if the police were able to locate the dead man’s mobile phone from which family members were receiving terrorising calls and text messages hours after it was discovered that the young man was missing.
On Friday last the body of Melville was discovered in a trench with marks of violence to his back, genitals and other parts of the body, including his head and throat. His family as well as investigators believed that he was attacked by more than one person.
Delon had received a call on his mobile phone from someone the night he last left his home. He then told his nephew that he was going to be out for a short while and return. His relatives had indicated that he went to get movies for his nephew to watch. He never made it back home.