THE body of 57-year-old Charles Major, a father of five who operated as a small miner in Mahdia for the past 20 years, was found yesterday morning in the Dickman Hill area with multiple chop wounds.Family members who spoke with the Guyana Chronicle contend that the man was either robbed before being murdered, or murdered then robbed.

They point to the excessive brutalization evident on his body and the fact that all the gold jewellery which he usually wore were missing, including a few of his fingers.

The man’s sister, Shaundell Major, who spoke with this publication at her Lot 386 Victoria Village, East Coast Demerara home, said her brother had last travelled to the city in July of 2014. She said the last time they spoke was on Wednesday, when she informed him that he needed to travel out of the interior for them to celebrate the purchase of her new car. Prior to that occasion, she had spoken to him three weeks ago.

Major’s family members on Friday morning received a call from two relatives who reside and work in the interior location, informing them of the dreaded news.

Shaundell Major said her niece, who first called her, asked if they had received a call and she responded in the negative, and her niece handed the phone to her mother, who is also in that area, and the mother asked the same question; and after getting the same response from Shaundell, the woman then informed her that the father of five had been murdered, and that police investigators were on their way into the Backdam to bring the body out.

Shaundell explained that she could not recall her brother mentioning having an issue with anyone, although she did say that the family was aware that her bother had had a court matter ongoing, wherein he and another man had been at odds over an excavator that the two had jointly purchased several years ago.

Police sources close to the investigation explained to this newspaper yesterday that Major had last been seen alive on Thursday in the company of a man in the Mahdia area. The police sources have also indicated that the person who communicated that information to them had indicated that the person in whose company Major had last been seen can be easily identified once spotted.

After the news of the man’s death reached the city, family members, including one of the dead man’s sons, travelled to the Mahdia location to supervise the handling of the body, and to accompany it out of the mining area.

Charles Major had been one of five children born to his parents. He leaves to mourn his mother, siblings, children and other relatives and friends.

(By Leroy Smith)