AN HIGHLY emotionally charged atmosphere prevailed at the Herstelling, East Bank Demerara homes of two families yesterday, when they learnt that the disembowelled bodies retrieved from Essequibo River, earlier this week, might be those of their missing loved ones.

The corpse are believed to be that of 40-year-old Titas Nascimento called ‘Buckley’ and Rickford Bannister, 46, both fishermen.

Nascimento’s grieving wife, Shanti Rickiram, 39, told reporters the father of two left home last week Thursday and efforts to contact him since have failed.

The woman collapsed several times, shouting the name of her spouse while their children, crying, were also being comforted.

Relatives said they are awaiting the return of recovered personal effects, such as a wrist watch, wedding band and cellular phone, to make a definite pronouncement on the identify of the deceased.

Bannister’s wife of four years, Angela Dabidyal said he left to work at sea on September 14.

She said, before then, he was a watchman at Meadow Bank wharf in Georgetown where he met the owner of a trawler on which he secured employment.

Dabidyal said she called him on his cellular phone on Friday night and he told her he was on his way to Parika, East Bank Essequibo and would be back home the next day.

When he did not show as expected, she said she tried calling him, again, many times but her calls went unanswered until Tuesday, when he said he was proceeding to Mahaica, East Coast Demerara.

That was the last time she heard from him and other attempts to contact him proved futile. It was the reports in the newspapers that aroused her suspicion that he could be one of the murdered duo.

Dabidyal said it was sometime last month that Bannister began working on the fishing vessel, with a crew of four.

She burst into loud wails yesterday as she spoke to the media.

“Look how cruelly they killed him. He had no eyes, no intestines and he was also shot several times. It is a brutal way to die,” she lamented.

The Police, in a Wednesday night press release, said that at about 16:00 h on Tuesday, September 29, the body of an unidentifiable man in a state of decomposition was seen floating in the Essequibo River in the vicinity of Wakenaam island.

The release said the corpse was fair in complexion and clad in a three-quarters pants and white shirt, lying face downwards with a wound to the head and disembowelled.

A post mortem examination, performed by Dr. Nehaul Singh, revealed that the cause of death was haemorrhage and shock due to gunshot injuries.

The other unidentified body, in a state of decomposition was found about 10:00 h Wednesday, September 30, afloat in the same river. It was fair in complexion, of medium build, about five feet nine inches tall and clad in long black pants with two wounds to the left side of the head and disembowelled.

An autopsy on it, done by the same pathologist, established that the man died of haemorrhage and shock, induced by gunshot injuries, as well.