THE team from the CARICOM Regional Security System (RSS), which recently visited Guyana, has expressed satisfaction with the work being done by the Guyana Police Force in relation to the brutal murders of 16-year-old Isaiah Henry, his cousin, 18-year-old Joel Henry, and 17-year-old Haresh Singh, all of Number Three Village, West Coast Berbice (WCB).
The team visited Guyana on September 28, and spent one week assisting local detectives with the case. Their final report has since been submitted to the Guyana Police Force.
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of an event at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Monday, President Irfaan Ali said he did not receive a copy of the team’s report, but he was briefed on its contents.

“What I’ve been told is that the RSS did some work; they recommended some additional work to be done, but in total, they were satisfied with the work that the local police [have] been doing,” President Ali said.

The mutilated bodies of the teen cousins were found on September 6, 2020 in the Cotton Tree backdam in West Berbice. Their gruesome murders sparked violent protests across the country for almost a week.

Three days after the Henry boys were found, on September 9, Singh was found, in a bloodied state as well, in the Number Three Village backdam hours after he left home on his motorcycle to transport water for his relatives who were working on their farm.

He was found unconscious by his 12-year-old brother, while his motorcycle was found torched. He died while on the way to the New Amsterdam Hospital. Singh’s murder is viewed as a reprisal killing for the Henry boys, after news spread that two of his relatives were arrested in connection with their murders.
Police had arrested over seven persons in connection with the murder of the Henry boys, but they were all released, as there was no firm case against them. As a matter of fact, it took the Police more than a week to reveal that the cousins were killed elsewhere, and then dumped in Cotton Tree.
A Post Mortem Examination (PME) found that they both died from haemorrhage and shock, due to multiple incised injuries. They both sustained severed spines, along with multiple chops about the body.

The killers carved out a huge ‘X’ on Isaiah’s head, while they cut open Joel’s chest. It is suspected that the boys had died some 36 hours prior to being found.
No one was arrested for the murder of Singh, and a PME found that he died from brain haemorrhage and blunt trauma to the head, compounded by compression injuries to the neck.
Following countrywide protests against the murders, President Ali had sought international help, and talks were underway to secure the services of one of the world’s foremost agencies in forensic anthropology to support the investigation of the Police.

The Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropology, which has worked on high- profile cases in many parts of the world, had offered to send a team to Guyana, including a forensic pathologist, a forensic anthropologist and a forensic radiologist.

It is unknown at this time whether this team did arrive.