– Killer still at large
THE KILLER of hinterland businessman and miner, John Philander, was up to last night still at large, but according to Divisional Commander of Police, Mr. David Ramnarine the Police has information on the identity of the suspect, and their investigations are ongoing. Philander, of Fairs Lust, Mackenzie, was reportedly hacked to death last weekend at his Echerak place of business in far-off Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) following a dispute with another man over money and gold.
Due to the remoteness of the area, however, his remains had had to be removed to the Jack Daniels Falls, an area not far from Kaieteur top, so as to make retrieval easier.
A team of policemen, aided by a relative of Philander’s, was dispatched to the area to mount an investigation, and after some doing, according to Ramnarine, had been able to get to as far as Kaieteur Top late Sunday afternoon, from whence they were expected to travel by boat to Jack Daniels.
They eventually got there yesterday, Ramnarine said, by which time the body had become so badly decomposed, in spite of hopes that the altitude would help preserve it, that it may not be possible to bring it down to the coastland after all. According to a relative, they may well have to bury it right there at Jack Daniels.
Relatives said that Philander had less than two weeks ago travelled  out from Echerak to Linden after an absence of three years, to spend some time with them and do some business.
He told them he’d left a man he knew well in charge of his business at Echerak, but they later learnt that when he returned to the area, he found that items from the shop along with raw gold and money were missing.
This led to a quarrel between he and the man to whom he had entrusted his business which later escalated in to into a fight.
He was reportedly sitting in his shop some time later, when the man, who had by now armed himself  with a knife and a cutlass, attacked him, stabbing and chopping him several times about the body.