The results of a post-mortem examination performed on the remains of Teshwar Madramootoo, 39, of Kilcoy Squatting Area, Corentyne proved that he died from asphyxiation due to drowning.

Teshwar Madramootoo

His body was spotted in a channel aback of Albion around 10:45 am on Tuesday. Relatives told Stabroek News that Madramootoo, a market labourer loved to consume alcohol.

His wife, Savitri `Sunita’ Mangru, 32, said he walked out of the home on Monday morning without saying where he was going.

She said he never stayed out of the house and when he did not return home that night she became worried.

She said “when he sober he would work and bring everything in the house but when he drink he don’t work.”

The woman was worried about how she would be able to take care of her four children: Shawn, 9, Eric, 8, Terry, 6 and four-year-old Kishan.

She said she never worked but now she said she “gat to try.” Her last child would start nursery school on Monday.

Madramootoo’s remains was found floating in the trench by a fisherman who contacted the relatives.

Undertakers from the Arokium Funeral Parlour subsequently arrived and removed the partly decomposed body which was then taken to the old New Amsterdam Hospital Mortuary for storage. Ice was also placed in the box with the body.

Upon seeing that, residents immediately contacted this newspaper and complained bitterly that they had been forced to endure the strong stench emanating from the body that had also attracted a lot of flies.

According to them, the mortuary [along with the old hospital building], which vandals had stripped of its roof and sections of the walls, was not in working condition.

They could not understand why the body was brought there and said even when the mortuary was functioning they could not open their windows because of the strong smell from dead bodies.

The residents were also disturbed that the post-mortem was performed at the same location yesterday.

Contacted, an official from the NA Hospital told this newspaper that he was not aware of the body being taken to the old mortuary on Tuesday.

However, he said he learnt that the police would normally use that mortuary when they have decomposed bodies. The police meanwhile, said they did not take the body there.