THE partly decomposed body of 25-year-old Akeem Culley, also called ‘Jamal’, of Meadowbrook Gardens, Georgetown, was found floating in a canal at GPL Reserve #1 in North Sophia, Georgetown yesterday.

His body was positively identified by his girlfriend, Kandyce Duncan, after a neighbour informed her that a body was floating in the trench some 100 yards away from her home.

Culley had gone missing on December 29 last after he was believed to be shot outside the home of his girlfriend by an armed gang. Duncan said she was at her home with the father of two on December 29 last when, at about 1:30 a.m., she heard a knock on her door.

“I ask is who and a man said, ‘Akeem! Come, ah wan tell yuh dis thing’.” She has a neighbour by the name of “Akeem”, so she thought it was him and opened the door. It was then that a masked man pushed a gun in her face and asked her for Culley.

She said Culley was standing by her bedroom door when three men entered the house, grabbed him and forced him out of the house. The men were in her yard, and she heard him cry “Ah!” just before two gunshots went off.

When she ran outside shortly after, all of the men, including Culley, had disappeared. She immediately telephoned police patrol and reported the matter at the Campbellville outpost.

She said she telephoned Culley’s mother and informed her what had happened, and she never again heard from Culley.

On Tuesday, at about 9:00 hrs, someone told her that a body was floating in the canal some 100 yards away from her home. She later identified the body as Culley’s by the red and white eagle boxer shorts he was wearing, since that was the garment he was wearing when she had last seen him.

She said Culley’s body was badly decomposed, with just the skull remaining of his head, and a foul odour attended the body.

Duncan said it had been previously rumoured that the men had killed Culley and had dumped his body in the canal, while some neighbours had also reported that after Culley had been wounded by gunfire, he had run in the direction of the canal but had never been seen coming out of that area.

Duncan said that a few days before Culley had gone missing, he and two other men had been accused of stealing a CG motorcycle from someone in the area, and while one of the accused men had been beaten by other men in the neighbourhood, threats had been made against Culley.

She said that she had had an argument with Culley on December 27, after she had discovered he had a woman who mothered his two children, but she had telephoned him and asked him not to return to the area because she had heard rumours that some men in the neighbourhood were planning to harm him.

“He said he ain’t trouble nobody and he coming to clear he name,” Kandyce told the Chronicle.

Culley has left to mourn two daughters, aged 3 months and 4 years old; his mother and his children’s mother, among other persons.

Police are investigating the matter.

(Shauna Jemmott)