Titus Nascimento

The corpses of three crew members of Island Princess were exhumed yesterday for DNA tests.

Crime Chief Seulall Persaud said the relatives requested to accompany the police to witness the exhumation..

H added that there is no new information regarding the circumstances surrounding the violent murders of the crew members, but the owner of the trawler have since admitted that he rented the vessel to be used for commercial purposes.

Persaud said that samples were taken and will be sent overseas for testing.

The group yesterday went to the areas where the bodies were interred shortly after the on-spot post mortems the day the corpses washed ashore in the Essequibo River.

Rickford Bannister

Family members of the men, Titus Buckley Nascimento, Rickford Bannister and Mahendra Singh, said after the exhumation the corpses were placed in coffins and reburied.

Still missing is another crew member, Ryan Chin, 23, of Friar’s Rust, Linden.

Police said that investigations have been launched into a report of a missing cargo vessel named ‘ISLAND PRINCESS’ and its four crew members about 18:00h on September 29, 2009, in the Essequibo River; and there was the subsequent discovery of two bodies off Hamburg and  Wakenaam Islands in the Essequibo River  on September 29 and 30.

The police reported that enquiries have so far revealed that Titus Thomas called Titus Buckley, the Captain of the vessel, and crew members Mahendra Singh, called Sunil, Ryan Chin, and Rickford Bannister left Parika with the vessel on Saturday September 26, 2009 for Friendship, East Bank Demerara.  They were last contacted about 18:30h on the same day and gave their location as Essequibo River mouth. Efforts to contact them about half an hour later proved futile.

The bodies of Titus Thomas and Mahendra Singh were found in the vicinity of Wakenaam and Hamburg Island on September 29 and 30 respectively. Their bodies bore gunshot injuries and they were disemboweled.

The two remaining crew members and the vessel are yet to be found.

Subsequently, about 17:05h Friday September 2, 2009, the body of a man about six feet tall and in a state of decomposition was found on the Queenstown, Essequibo foreshore, disemboweled, and with suspected gunshot injuries to the head and right leg.

The body was clad in mauve underwear, about 30 years old, medium built, brown in complexion and seeming to be to be of mixed ancestry.

Relatives believe that the corpse is that of Herstelling resident, Rickford Bannister.

‘G’ Division Commander, Superintendent Christopher Griffith told the Guyana Chronicle that a wristwatch, a wedding band and a Nokia cellular phone is being transported to the city in order for the relatives of the men that washed up shore on Tuesday and Wednesday to make a positive identification of the articles.

Police said that at about 16:00 h on Tuesday, September 29, the body of an unidentified man in a state of decomposition was seen floating in 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 disemboweled.

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 disemboweled.

An autopsy established that the man died of haemorrhage and shock, induced by gunshot injuries.

Sonell Nelson photos saved in a folder in Graphics as missing me