THE bullet-riddled body of taxi-driver Sean De Freitas Sookdeo, 25, of 12 Block ‘CC’ Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, was discovered early yesterday morning at Thomas Lands, Georgetown. It is believed that the father of one was murdered elsewhere and his body dumped at the location during the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
The body was spotted by passersby on their way to work and the police were summoned.
At first, persons thought he was the victim of a fatal accident but when sleuths examined the body they saw what appeared to be gunshot wounds.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Seelall Persaud, said that the body bore four gunshot wounds to the hands, head and abdomen, while there were burn marks to the back of the neck and abdomen.
Persaud added that a Guyana passport was found on the body and they are in the process of checking whether it is genuine.
It is also believed that Sookdeo was severely beaten and tortured before he was killed.
Relatives yesterday said that Sookdeo worked as a taxi driver, using the car of a friend who is overseas. He was last seen alive around 19:30hrs Monday  when he was overheard telling someone on his cellular phone that he would be meeting them at McDoom Gas Station, Greater Georgetown.
The man’s mother said that she last saw him alive on Monday night when he visited her Mon Repos home, as he usually did, and he seemed his usual jovial self.
Sookdeo failed to return to his wife Alicea and daughter Monday night, and it was then she telephoned his parents to enquire of his whereabouts after calls and text messages to his cell phone went unanswered, which was not a norm
Alicea called Sookdeo’s mom at about 24:45hrs to report he did not go home and they began searching for him.
It was when his sister, who lives in McDoom, got up early Tuesday morning and found his car parked at the side of her yard, that she  informed the others. The vehicle was locked and he was nowhere in sight.
Relatives told the Guyana Chronicle yesterday that his murder came as a total shock to them, since he did not seem troubled, and they are clueless as to who may have wanted to hurt him.
They learnt that his body was not found until 09:30hrs yesterday, when a friend of the family telephoned to say that he might have been the victim of a hit-and-run accident.
But when they showed up at Lyken’s Funeral Parlour the police informed them that he was murdered.
Sookdeo’s wife and daughter, who would be one year old in October, were expected to travel to Trinidad for a vacation yesterday morning; but their trip was cancelled after they received the dreadful news of his murder.
Sookdeo was described as a friendly, hard-working person, who was family-oriented. He is survived by his wife and daughter, his parents and six siblings.
A post mortem is expected today.