After a Kaikan Street man failed to show up for work and didn’t answer his mobile phone his friends became worried, went searching for him and discovered his body.
Dexter Gaspar, 28, of 2566 Kaikan Street, North Ruimveldt, Georgetown, an insurance company supervisor, was found with his head forced through the bars of his bed frame, his hands bound and his throat slit.
It is unclear whether the man was a victim of robbery. However, some time before 5 pm yesterday it was observed that his front door had been left ajar. There was nothing to suggest though, that whoever murdered the man had forced their way into his home.
Music, neighbours told this newspaper, was heard coming from Gaspar’s house all night on Tuesday and into the afternoon hours of yesterday. They believe that Gaspar’s attacker(s) put the music on to drown his screams and to give the impression that the man was at home after they had left.
It was not until his blood-covered body was discovered that the music was finally turned off. This newspaper also understands that the man’s television was left on.
Gaspar, a friend said, lived alone and it would therefore be extremely difficult to determine whether anything was missing from the house. However, the place did not appear to have been ransacked.
When Stabroek News arrived at the scene shortly before 6pm yesterday co-workers, friends, church members and curious residents crowded Kaikan Street. Investigators had already been there for more than an hour and specialists were inside processing the crime scene.
Gaspar was a supervisor in the Life Insurance section of the Hand-in-Hand Groups of Companies. His co-workers said that after he failed to show up at work and didn’t answer repeated telephone calls several of them decided to check on him. As news of the man’s death circulated, friends continued to arrive at the scene and many burst into tears.
“This was a man who was always on Facebook… he was there all the time and when we didn’t see him online and we couldn’t get him on his phone we knew that something had to be wrong,” a friend, who declined to be named, said.
The same friend explained that Gaspar’s close relatives lived overseas. Gaspar, they said, was an independent man and was comfortable living alone.
During last year, the friend recalled, Gaspar’s uncle died after being chopped several times in the lower flat of the same Kaikan Street house.
In July, Gaspar’s cousin, Christopher Anderson, was charged with the murder of their uncle Garnett Woolford. It was alleged that on May 4, Anderson of 2566 Kaikan Street, North Ruimveldt murdered Woolford. The incident had occurred on April 21, 2009.
Meanwhile, as investigators and attendants from the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour fetched Gaspar’s body from the house several persons at the scene started to shout crude comments. This angered some friends and the two groups exchanged words.
“Our friend is dead and these idle people standing here and hurling insults…,” another friend stated.
Gaspar, that friend said, was last heard from some time on Tuesday afternoon. It is believed that the man was attacked and murdered some time Tuesday night. Police up to press time had not issued a statement regarding the matter.
Just before 7.30 pm when Stabroek News departed the scene investigators were still there and the crowd was yet to disperse.
Gaspar is the 76th man to be murdered so far this year.
