-underwear, belt could help determine if remains are that of missing school teacher

WHILE not confirmed, police investigators are somewhat convinced that the badly decomposed remains of a female which were discovered in a clump of bushes at Turkeyen on the lower East Coast Demerara on Thursday afternoon might be that of missing St. Stanislaus College teacher, Nyozi Goodman, who has been missing for about two weeks.

Yesterday morning government pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh visited the location where the remains were discovered to carry out a post-mortem. Undertakers who were present at the scene on Thursday night were not

allowed to remove the body from the location based on the state of decomposition and the advice of investigators.

According to images, which were seen by this publication, the woman remains constituted 95% of skeleton with some amount of flesh on one of the foot of the remains. This publication was informed by sources close to the investigation that the police cannot definitively say that the remains are that of the missing teacher. Investigators said that they are sure that the remains are that of a female.
However the same source who has been in contact with the relatives of the missing teacher, and who would have described her, is suggesting that the remains are more than likely that of the teacher. The Chronicle was told that someone very close to the woman would have to determine if the cloth belt which was tied around her hand and the underwear which was discovered close to the body are the belongings of Ms. Goodman.
There were no relatives of the teacher present at the scene of the discovery as they were in Linden at the time. They had indicated that as they tried to take their mind off from the situation and erasing the thought that the remains might be that of the missing teacher, they were locked to the cricket game as a form of stress relief.
Yesterday the post-mortem was conducted under the watchful eyes of close to 15 investigators inclusive of persons from the police in “A” and “C” Divisions as well as under the distant lenses of journalists.
Reporters and cameramen were kept at bay as the investigators combed the area, picked up used condoms and condom rappers among other things which may help to provide clues with respect to the discovery of the woman.

The post-mortem was witnessed by some 15 police investigators and a distanced view under the lenses of several media personnel who showed up at the location.
Meanwhile, during the course of yesterday morning there were several persons who were traversing the area who claimed that they would pass the area daily but had no idea that a body was lying in the bushes because they got no strange smell when passing the area.

Also yesterday, several dogs were seen heading towards where the decomposed body was located, suggesting that they may have been feeding on the remains for some time now.
The teacher was reported missing two weeks ago after she visited a basketball game along with her students. She sent her students ahead while informing them that she was going to be picked up by someone. No one reportedly saw the vehicle or person/s who picked up the teacher, who since then has been missing.

(By Leroy Smith)