Intelligence leading police to ‘prime suspect’

POLICE on the East Coast of Demerara were, up to late yesterday, looking for a man whom they said is the prime suspect in the murder/robbery committed on Jenifer Ann Mendonca in her Plaisance home last Friday night.

Information reaching the Guyana Chronicle suggests that Mendonca had been murdered by a certain man who might have been known to her. Meanwhile, the other two persons who had been arrested in connection with the murder are still in police custody.

Following an eyewitness’s account of what he had seen hours after Mendonca’s body had been discovered in her ransacked home, police in ‘C’ Division arrested two suspects, both of whom lived in the same street as the woman, and one of whom is said to be her neighbour while the other resides a few houses from the woman’s residence. One of the two men was deported to Guyana from another country.

The arrest of the two men came after an eyewitness had reported that, earlier on Friday afternoon, he had heard the woman’s dogs barking loudly and continuously, and had noticed a tall man wearing a tope leaving the woman’s yard.
The eyewitness did not raise an alarm, since the presence of the man, while strange, did not raise any suspicion that he might have committed any indecent or unlawful act against Mendonca, who is well known throughout the community.
After the body of the woman had been discovered and the police had begun to question persons in the area, the eyewitness had recounted what he had noticed earlier in the day.

Taking the description given, the police carried out a search of a home a couple of houses from the late Mendonca’s residence, and a man fitting the description given by the eyewitness was arrested.

During the search of the house where the man had been found, a tope was also discovered. Police have already lifted fingerprints from the scene.

On Friday night, persons in the area raised an alarm after they did not see the woman for hours, and as the place got dark, the lights in her home were not switched on.

A neighbour then informed them that the back door to the woman’s house was open, and that prompted residents to venture into the yard and proceed inside the house, where the discovery of Mendonca’s bound body was made.

The 57-year-old Mendonca had her hands and feet bound, and a pillow had been placed over her face when her body was discovered.

Persons in the area expressed shock at her gruesome death, and opined that her attackers were known to her. The body is presently at the Lyken Funeral Parlour awaiting a post-mortem, to be conducted tomorrow.

(By Leroy Smith)