Captain’s initial story not holding water
–Relatives find one body, three still unaccounted for

LOCAL investigators may now be paying even more attention to the lone survivor, the captain of the Guyanese vessel that was allegedly attacked in Surinamese waters by pirates last week.

The Guyana Chronicle was informed that during yesterday’s search of the Mahaica foreshore, triggered by discovery of the ill-fated vessel in the same vicinity earlier this week, relatives of the missing crewmen stumbled upon the body of Andrew Goopie, erasing all of the boat captain’s claims that the alleged piracy attack had occurred in Surinamese waters. The body was clad only in a brief, and its parts were evidently not tied up, clearly contradicting the information which the captain had given to investigators.

The captain, still in Suriname according to information reaching the Guyana Chronicle, has been convincing investigators there that he and the other four men had been attacked and beaten by pirates, who later chopped and tied up the other crew members before throwing them overboard.

He was, however, never able to explain how he was really able to get away from the more than four pirates who had reportedly carried out the attack without any of them going after him, although he did say that he had plunged overboard and had managed to swim away, and was later rescued by persons from that country.

The incident which occurred last week Tuesday was first reported to Guyanese officials not as a piracy attack, but that the crew members were missing. However, the vessel which was reportedly attacked in Surinamese waters strangely showed up at the Mahaica foreshore after it had been seen drifting in that vicinity by other fishers earlier this week.

Crime Chief Leslie James did express to the Guyana Chronicle his concern that the vessel would strategically show up at that location after drifting, when the current and rough waters would have subsided.

James indicated to the Guyana Chronicle that the police were investigating the matter but were not able to get much out of the captain, since he was still in Suriname assisting police investigators there with their investigations.

The police were moving to question persons from the Mahaica and Mahaicony areas who are in the business of fishing to ascertain if they may have any information pertaining to the disappearance of the men and the appearance of their vessel in that area.

Now that the body of one of the men has been recovered at Mahaica in relatively close proximity to where the vessel had been discovered, the police are working with the view that the incident may not have been a pirate attack, and that whatever the incident was, it did occur in Guyanese waters.

At the moment, the police have two persons in custody assisting with their investigations. The men are said to be from Berbice and Vryheid’s Lust respectively.

The family members of the missing crewmen are continuing their search for the other three persons. The captain’s account is that the men had been tied up before they were tossed into the water.

(By Leroy Smith)