AFTER leaving his Crane Housing Scheme home on the West Coast Demerara last week Friday to do his regular taxi work, 57-year-old Colin Clarke, a father of three, was never able to return home alive.His body was discovered Thursday at about 06:30hrs in a clump of bushes, where it was partly decomposed and lying face down at Uitvlugt, another West Coast Demerara community.
His sister, Jacqueline Clarke, who spoke with this publication said that her brother left home last Friday at about 15:00hrs to operate his taxi. The vehicle he drove was owned by the mother of one of his children.
According to his sister, the car would usually be picked up from Stanleytown, West Bank Demerara whenever the man is ready to work and it would be returned in the evenings around 19:00hrs.
However at that time last Friday, the woman said, she received a call from the daughter of the man stating that he had failed to show up and return the car at its Stanleytown address.
“Aunty Jacqueline, Colin can’t bring the people car and he supposed to bring in the people car at seven o’clock and I said ‘Shelly cool down, cool down, something mussy happen’, and I asked her if he normally comes in at 7 and she said ‘yea’ and up to now he cannot come with the car and I said alright and I hang up the phone,” the man’s sister stated, recalling the annoyed tone of the man’s daughter last Friday evening.
The woman said that she became suspicious and called her sister at the Crane Housing Scheme home where the man lived and it was confirmed that Clarke was not home as yet. Jacqueline then reportedly told the woman about the call she received from the man’s daughter about his failure to return the car on time.
She said too that she continued to call the home, checking to see if her brother had returned home but he did not so from working the night shift on Friday she went to the family home in Crane and then they decided to go to the police and report him missing. The police did entertain the report but failed to take a statement, the woman said.
On Friday evening the owners of the car even showed up at the home of the now dead man after he was missing and they conducted a brief search for him but came up empty handed.
On Thursday morning family members were told by investigators after the man’s body was found that it appeared as if he had been strangled but that information would have to be confirmed after the post-mortem which is expected to be performed today.
Relatives described the father of three as someone who was always easygoing. However, they also recalled that he would be argumentative and ‘talk up’ to anyone who tried to override him, hence his nickname ‘Radio’ because of all the talking he did.
Family members are of the view that the man was hired by persons posing as passengers who later killed him and dumped his body at Uitvlugt. The police are continuing their search for the suspects and the car which has still not been recovered.