–car found abandoned at Parika Backdam, two in custody

FAMILY members of 17-year-old Danrag Latchman of 115 Lusignan, East Coast Demerara are hoping and praying for his safe return after he disappeared on Wednesday, when he left in his private vehicle, Toyota 212 # PNN 9823, to transport two men he knows from Good Hope, East Coast Demerara to Parika, East Bank Essequibo.

His relatives are hoping that he has not been murdered.

Latchman’s relatives say the two men had visited their home on one occasion to carry out works on the roof, and this publication was told that the young man was last seen by his uncle heading out of Good Hope with the

two men in the vehicle.

Taramattia Daby, Young Latchman’s mother, related that when she had contacted her son at about 17:00 hrs on Wednesday, he had informed her that he was heading to Parika with his two friends, where they were expected to pick up some money from another person.

The woman said she averaged when her son would be back in the city and began calling his phone, and he informed her that he was still “over the river” as the man they had gone to see had been praying.

Latchman’s mother said she again tried to contact her son, but his cellphones were both turned off.
Repeated efforts to contact Latchman proved futile, and relatives began feeling uneasy since the 17-year-old is not known to be someone who sleeps out.

Later in the evening, family members visited the home of the two men who were last seen in the teenager’s car, and they questioned them about Latchman’s whereabouts.

The men reportedly told Latchman’s relatives that when they returned from Parika on Wednesday night, they exited the car on the Lusignan Public Road in the vicinity of the supermarket.

They said that Latchman proceeded to head east along the East Coast Demerara Public Road to drop off two other persons that had joined the car at Parika and had asked to be taken to Enmore, a village also on the East Coast Demerara.

Latchman’s relatives asked the men if they knew the other two persons who had joined the vehicle, or whether they would recognise them if they saw them again, but they responded in the negative.

Latchman’s family then decided to report the matter at the Vigilance Police Station, and the two men who were last seen in his car were arrested. Up to press time, they were assisting the police in their investigations.

This publication was told that the arrested duo has been giving investigators different stories to account for the period they had been with Latchman and their reason for hiring him. Latchman’s relatives say he did not work as a taxi operator but rather works along with his father who is a welder.

Late yesterday the police at Vigilance took the two men over to the Police in D Division, where they were also questioned by investigators. The men were asked to take the police to the man whom they claimed they had travelled into the area to meet and whom they claimed had some sort of money to give them.

One of Latchman’s relatives is of the view that his friends, who are known to the family, took the young man and handed him over to either the other two men or to the person they had travelled to Parika to meet.

Danrag Latchman’s relatives also lament the unprofessional approach of some ranks at the Vigilance Police Station, who were very laid back and appeared the least concerned with the report that the family was making at the time.
One relative told this newspaper that the ranks on duty on the night the report had been made to the police were not willing to drive to the home of the suspects.
The relatives of the missing man were forced to use their vehicle to transport the police to the home of the two suspects, even though there were two police vehicles parked in the compound of the police station.

Late yesterday Latchman’s relatives received word that a white 212 motorcar had been seen stripped and parked at a location at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo.
However, when they travelled over to the location the vehicle was not that of the now missing man.
Continued searches led family members to stumble on the vehicle at the Parika Backdam. The vehicle, according to information reaching the Guyana Chronicle, was damaged to some extent, and the inside was filled with sand and a piece of wood, suggesting that there had been some kind of struggle. There was, however, no blood in the vehicle, and the keys to the vehicle were not in sight.

Relatives and police also searched the trunk of the vehicle for the young man, since they thought that he had been murdered and placed in the trunk.

(By Leroy Smith)