The Guyanese wife of Brazilian miner Adinario De Miranda Brito, who reportedly shot himself after killing his reputed wife three weeks ago, says that she is convinced that he did not commit suicide because of the conflicting reports she has received.
Meanwhile the woman who surfaced recently has also expressed concerns about her husband’s dredge which has reportedly been taken over by another miner operating in the Cuyuni/Mazaruni area.
According to reports domestic problems between Brito who was a miner/dredge owner and 38-year-old Brazi-lian Irtaenildo Maria Leal De Arauge was responsible for the tragedy which occurred at New Road, Middle Mazaruni on September 23.
Brito repeatedly stabbed and chopped his partner to death before reportedly shooting himself in the chest.
Speaking to Stabroek News earlier this week, a distraught Mala Brito said that her husband had informed her in 2004 that he had bought a dredge but now that he is dead she is hearing that he had not finished paying off for it and that the real owner is operating it at Barlow Landing.
The woman said shortly after they were married she give birth to a daughter who is now six years old. She said that her husband has never supported her or their child and feels that the dredge should either be given to her or she should be paid for it.
She told this newspaper that the police had told her that they had dismantled it and it is presently being stored at another camp. However Mala said that she has since learnt that the machine is in operation and although she had sent messages to other Brazilians operating in the area she has gotten no reply. She is now trying desperately to locate the dredge.
Mala said that she was told that on the day of the incident, things got bitter between the two after the woman decided to end the relationship.
Her husband, she said, was seen sharpening a cutlass and it appeared as though he was preparing to do some work. After that he was seen speaking to the woman but then a Brazilian who claimed she witnessed the incident, said that the woman was hollering and when she looked she saw Brito chopping her.
According to Mala, the witness first claimed that she ran away and when she reached another dredge located nearby she heard a single shot. Mala said that the woman then changed her story and said that after the chopping, Adinario sat down and was seen talking to the corpse. The woman questioned how the witness could have been in two places at the same time.
Though the post-mortem results were given as shock and haemorrhage due to a gunshot wound, Mala said that the witness’s conflicting stories and the fact that her husband managed to shoot himself in the chest with a shotgun, leave her with many doubts.
Mala said De Arauge’s remains were taken back to Brazil by the witness while she buried her husband last Wednesday.
Holding their wedding album and marriage certificate, Mala told this newspaper that her husband left their matrimonial home in 2004 to work in the interior but never returned. However she would hear from him occasionally. Mala said that she was never aware that the man had a relationship with another woman until she read of his death in the newspapers.
Police had said in a press release that they were treating the incident as a murder/suicide.
A release from the police had said that their investigations had revealed that Brito and De Arauge had an argument over an alleged triangular affair during which he allegedly stabbed her repeatedly about the body.
He then went outside of the mining camp, located at New Road, Middle Mazaruni and is suspected to have shot himself with an unlicensed shotgun which he had in his possession.
Both parties succumbed to the injuries sustained, the police said, adding that an unlicensed 12-gauge shotgun along with a spent cartridge and a knife believed to have been used to inflict the injuries on the woman, have since been recovered.
The bodies were subsequently flown to the city.
