Local cops to seek Brazilian help in Lethem murder probe
As the probe into the murder of Bom Fim resident Morgan Gonsalves continues, local police are expected to contact Brazilian police for assistance, police Commander Kevin Adonis said.
Speaking to Stabroek News via telephone yesterday, he explained that the matter is still being investigated and no one has been arrested yet.
“The information we have received so far is leading us across the border. With this, we will have to contact our counterparts there for assistance,” Adonis explained.
Gonsalves, 22, a Guyanese national of Bom Fim, Roraima, Brazil was discovered dead on the Takutu bridge trail at around 7am on Sunday.
Stabroek News was told that Gonsalves’ body was discovered by immigration officers in the area, and later identified by his brother, Ronson Gonsalves, who went searching for him after he did not return home on Saturday night.
Morgan, on Saturday night last, went to a night spot in Tabatinga, Lethem with a relative. However, Ronson had previously related, when the relative was ready to leave the nightspot, his brother was sleeping, and despite attempts to wake him, he remained sleeping.
Subsequently, his body was found on the Takutu bridge trail in a pool of blood and with abrasions about his body, including to his head.
The motive of the suspected murder remains unclear, On Monday, Stabroek News reported the commander as saying that based on information received, Morgan had some issues with some Brazilians and the police were working to apprehend the individuals to aid with the investigations.
Ronson had told Stabroek News that he spotted his brother while walking across the trail from Brazil.
“I say in my mind ‘look Morgan there sleeping’. So I walk up to go pick him up but I see two immigration officers there too and I walked pass a bit and saw him with blood on his skin…I said in my mind, ‘my brother dead, my brother dead’ and I turned back but the officers said ‘don’t touch him’,” Ronson recalled in the Monday report.
The family, the brother, said suspects that Morgan had confronted some men who reportedly stole their sister’s friend’s phone. The family believes that it was during the confrontation, Morgan was attacked.