THE bodies of gold miner David Courtman and bandit Oswald (Ossie) Bourne,  arrived in Georgetown yesterday afternoon, the latter being one of four men who attacked the former in a group Sunday night, as they were walking back to their respective camps at Mousie Landing, Konawaruk, in Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni). Post mortem examinations are scheduled to be performed on the deceased today.

Courtman, whose reputed wife is a Brazilian, is from Mainstay on the Essequibo Coast but he had been previously identified as Devon Thomas.

Subsequent checks, however, revealed that his parents are Sampson and Theresa Courtman.

His mother confirmed his identity to the Guyana Chronicle by telephone yesterday and reported that she received several calls from other miners, since Monday, some of whom hail from the Essequibo Coast.

She said the Police gave her the description of the murdered man and told her of the scheduled autopsy.

Courtman and her husband, Chaminda ‘Anand’ Dass , stepfather of her dead son, will travel to the city this morning to make a positive identification of the remains and witness the operation before making return arrangements for the corpse to the Essequibo Coast.

At her Richmond Housing Scheme home, Courtman tearfully recalled the last words of her only son who was the eldest of six children.

She said he was “very loving” and “a special son” to her.
She recalled they last spoke on Mother’s Day when he telephoned and promised to send her some money and call her later.

“I never knew he will never, ever call me again,” the woman sobbed.

She said, when he lived at her home, he used to work as a sawman, cutting lumber in the Onderneeming area but, two years ago, he left for the interior and started working as a miner in the Konawaruk area.

She said it was minutes before midday yesterday that a man, who identified himself as a Police officer from the Georgetown Headquarters, informed her that her son was shot and killed during a robbery while he was on his way to the backdam.

She said she became speechless and could not move for several minutes.

Courtman said he also loved his sisters dearly and they, too, received money from him on a regular basis.

She revealed that her youngest child, Romesa, 13, a student of Anna Regina Multilateral School, also on the Essequibo Coast, dreamt, Monday night, that she had been shot and yesterday she got the dreadful news about David.

Courtman said she plans to have a church service for him, following which would be the interment at Mainstay.

Meanwhile, Clifford Andrews of Chenapau, one of the miners who was wounded and suffered other injuries when he scuffled with one of the attackers, remains a patient at Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) in stable condition.

He was, initially, admitted to Mahdia Hospital but was flown out to the city by a chartered aircraft, accompanied by a nurse.