-analysis confirms presence of at least six persons

Thirteen months after they first took DNA samples, Jamaican forensic experts have requested more samples for four of the miners who were killed and their bodies burnt at Lindo Creek last June, according to a release from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The release said that samples from relatives of Lancelot Lee, Horace Drakes, Cedric Arokium and Nigel Torres have been requested. The others killed at the camp site were Clifton Wong, Compton Speirs, Bonny Harry and Dax Arokium.

Meanwhile, the release also said that the Jamaican team has “concluded that concerning DNA analysis performed on the bones found at Lindo Creek the presence of at least six individuals have been established.”

“However, only three full profiles were obtained as a result of the analysis,” the release continued. And of the three profiles two were associated “with reference samples submitted by possible parents. However reference samples submitted by siblings were inadequate to establish any relationship.”

Stabroek News contacted the mother of Lancelot Lee, 66-year-old Olinda Debideen, and she said last week she was contacted by a police officer from Eve Leary who informed that he wanted her son to visit so that a sample could be taken from him. The woman said her son was not at home and the officer left his number and was later contacted but he told her son that when they are ready they would contact him.

“I don’t understand why they want a sample from my son because I am his [Lancelot’s] mother and I gave a sample so I don’t know what else they need,” the woman said.

“Right now I don’t know what else to say about this whole thing, I am just so upset… even if I get something for he… some little bone or something,” the woman said as she burst into tears. She said according to her religion her son is “not at peace” because he was not laid to rest and feels if she just gets something for him she would be able to perform his final rites.

“But right now I am just leaving it in the hands of God but it still hard,” she said.

The woman recalled that her son was very good “at fixing things like pipes and so on” and she advised him not to go to the interior but to ply his trade in the city but he did not listen to her.

“You know when children get big, I use to beg him not to go but he liked it and now look what happened.”

The burnt remains of the miners were discovered at the Lindo Creek mining camp in June last year. They were unidentifiable. About a month later, after much lobbying by individuals and organisations, the Guyana Police Force requested assistance from Jamaica. Officers from that country’s police force later arrived here and went to the site where samples were taken from the remains. Relatives of the dead men were also asked to submit DNA samples. They were promised that the results would be known in two weeks but have since received very limited information.

Some relatives of the dead miners have since indicated that they have given up ever knowing the results, while others are still wishing for closure through positive identification of their loved ones, which would give them an opportunity to say goodbye.

Owner of the camp where the eight miners died, Leonard Arokium, who discovered the remains of the men, lost his son and his brother, both of whom had been working at his mine site. Arokium has stated publicly on many occasions following the June 21 discovery of the burnt bones and skulls that he believed members of the joint services were responsible for the deaths of the men.

The Joint Services had strongly denied this and said that the now dead Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins and his gang were responsible for the brutal slaying of the men. The kidnapping and murder of a young Bartician allegedly by three members of the coast guard last week has brought the Lindo Creek massacre again into the focus of the public.