Georgetown : The Ministry of Home Affairs this morning clarified a publication by Kaieteur News dated Tuesday 17th January 2012 and captioned ‘Payment for Lindo Creek remains described as flawed financial oversight.’
Relative to a report of murder committed on Cecil Arokium and seven other miners, which occurred between June 12th – 24th 2008 at Arokium Mining Camp, Lindo Creek, Upper Berbice River, the Guyana Police Force, honouring commenced an investigation.
The evidence found at the crime scene suggested that persons in the Camp were burnt along with the Camp to the extent that none of them was identifiable. Suspected human remains inclusive of feet, bones and skulls among other body parts were found.
Assistance in processing the Crime Scene was provided by members of the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago and Major Investigation Task Force of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
The Ministry says the investigators advised that the identification of the persons murdered could only have been determined via DNA analysis. As a result samples of the human remains recovered from the Crime Scene were taken by the Jamaican Team (which included a Forensic Pathologist) to the Jamaican Forensic Laboratory for analysis, while, the remainder was stored at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour.
The Jamaican Force Constabulary submitted a report of a partial analysis that was conducted and they promised to submit the full report by the end of January 2012.
The remains stored at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour forms a vital part of the evidence collected. It is usual for remains of deceased persons in murder investigations to be disposed of after a post mortem examination is concluded by handing over the body to relatives of the deceased for funeral.
The Home Affairs Ministry pointed out that in the Lindo Creek case, which is an exceptional one, the remains were not identified and therefore could not have been handed over to anyone nor disposed of by the State due to emotional issues normally associated with relatives of murder victims.
The result is that apart from the samples taken to Jamaica, the remainder is still stored at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour at the expense of the State.
Because of the controversy surrounding the Lindo Creek incident, the Guyana Police Force sought to exercise caution in the storage of the remains of the victims. There was no viable option available at the time to facilitate storage of the remains neither did the Guyana Police Force anticipate that it would have taken a long period of time to obtain the results of the DNA.
None of the financial regulations was breached and the expenditure was charged to the correct Line Item –‘6294 -Other’ in the current allocation of the Guyana Police Force. This Line item caters for payment of expenses relative to cases of unnatural death where the Guyana Police Force have to intervene, which invariably leads to situations where they have to engage the services of funeral parlours for the transportation and storage of dead bodies prior to the disposal, by way of burial by relatives of the deceased or the State.
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