Georgetown: Where in the world is Justin Jones? Is he still alive and well? Was he abducted and killed? Does the Police Force have the answer? These are just a few of the many questions that have been circulating in the mind of Evelyn Estwick since the disappearance of her nephew almost two decades ago.
With each passing year hope dwindles, but somewhere in her heart of hearts there remains optimism – although she has exhausted every possible avenue to find her nephew – that one day they will be reunited.
But the hurt and lack of support on the part of the authorities still lingers and could be heard in her every utterance as she recalled the last day she saw Justin, who according to her grew up in her Buxton, East Coast Demerara home after his mother died.
Recalling the overwhelming dilemma at a recent International Women’s Day forum at the Regency Suites/Hotel, Estwick said that it was early one morning in 1994, that she left for the city, leaving her five-year-old grand-daughter in the care of, then, 20-year-old Justin.
He, however, informed her that he wanted to go to the city as well to purchase a boots.
“I told him to stay home because he got to look at the little girl…in between that time Justin left without my knowledge and I understand he took my little grand-daughter over to a relative.”
He would never return home. Estwick said that when she returned home in the afternoon, Justin was nowhere to be found. She eventually decided to call his phone but got no answer. “He would usually answer me as soon I call…he was always a child like that, once he know was me number he would answer his cell phone quickly.”
This led her to enquire of some masons who were undertaking works at her home whether they had seen Justin. According to her, she had left some money with Justin to pay the contractors, but he never did.
She decided to telephone family members to enquire if they had seen Justin but they too hadn’t seen him. Into the evening, Estwick said that her displeasure transformed into deep concern as no one could provide information about Justin’s whereabouts.
By the following morning she got a report that the police had picked him up somewhere in the vicinity of Demico House. “I decided to go to the Brickdam Police Station early the next morning, but when I went there, they said they don’t have anybody by that name.”
A distressed Estwick left the gates of the Police Station but was soon confronted by three young men who asked her who she was looking for. After describing her nephew, the young men responded in the affirmative that they, along with Justin were picked up by the police. “I turned back right away…I went to an officer and say that a young man just tell me that y’all pick Justin in the same vehicle with them yesterday…”
Eventually, Estwick recalled, the officer summoned the young men and asked that they describe Justin to him. The officer called another officer, whom he said was senior to him, and the young men were made to relate the same thing, Estwick said.
However, the search for Justin seemed to reach a dead end as the officers kept insisting they had no such person in their custody. On her way out of the Police Station again, Estwick said that another young man who was selling snow cone said that Justin was standing with him talking when the police came and picked him up.
“I ask the young man if he was willing to go to the station and give a statement and he said yes. He went to the station and he gave a statement…he even described the police officer who picked up Justin and gave them a number for the police vehicle that picked up Justin…because he claimed he does be around the place so much.”
The police officers informed the young man that he would be required to identify the officer in an identification parade a few days later but to his surprise, the officer in question was not in the identification parade, resulting in no officer being identified.
Estwick said she was eventually invited to a meeting with the Crime Chief and the Commissioner of Police and they revealed their belief that the whole scenario was based on “a mistaken identity” and that it may have been the belief of officers that Justin, who was nicknamed ‘Fine Man’ was perhaps believed to be the notorious Rondell ‘Fine Man’ Rawlins.
“I told them that it can’t be because the wanted photo I see them putting up was a very dark-skin person and my nephew is light skin…he lighter than me….” Several other meetings with other members of the Police Force brought her no closer to finding her nephew.
Estwick decided to take her concerns to the Guyana Human Rights Authority and “I walk till I couldn’t walk around anymore…and still I ain’t get no results from that.”
The woman eventually took it upon herself to take the matter to the High Court.
“When I went to the High Court they push me from day to day and up to today nothing has come out of it. I don’t know what happen to the matter and every time I keep finding out nobody could tell me anything…”
“From April 25th, 1994, Justin disappeared and my aunt take it on so much we had to send her overseas. She died in the States and her body come back and got buried and still we can’t find Justin,” said a despondent Estwick.
According to the woman, “Justin was a child who was always willing and caring. He just disappeared into thin air and nobody can say anything,” a situation which has left the Estwick family with way too many questions and absolutely no answers.
