Dear Editor,
The Gomes family is soliciting your help to highlight the unanswered questions the Guyana Police Force, B Division East Berbice is avoiding about the death of Ivor Gomes, former police officer and taxi driver of Asylum Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice.
It was reported in the press that the body of my brother Ivor Gomes was discovered at Topo/Albion on September 12, 2010, and was taken to the New Amsterdam hospital morgue.
The hospital records have revealed the body was taken to the morgue on Tuesday, September 14, 2010. Ivor Gomes attended the funeral of a colleague for Triple’s Taxi Service at Albion. The funeral service may have had people attending.
Dr Nehaul Singh conducted an autopsy on September 21, after the body was exhumed and reported the cause of death as haemorrhage of the brain and cirrhosis of the liver. Dr Singh with his medical experience would know that death from cirrhosis of liver does not occur suddenly, but after a prolonged illness which includes the swelling of the abdomen.
The brain haemorrhage caused my brother’s death, and a simple slip and fall would not cause haemorrhage of the brain. Blunt force trauma to the head, however, could cause haemorrhage of the brain. My father Robert Gomes requested that the samples be sent to Trinidad for a second opinion, but the pathologist refused to authorize the request.
(a) The family would like the Commissioner of Police or the Commander of B Division to tell us where the body of Ivor Gomes was from Sunday to Tuesday?
(b) How close to the funeral was the body recovered?
(c) Why are there only two head photographs of my brother’s body?
(d) Why was the scene where the body was discovered not photographed?
(e) Why did the pathologist Dr Vivikanand Brijmohan not perform an autopsy on the body on September 15, when he inspected it?
Any member of the public who may have seen anything is asked to contact the family at 333-2365 or the police at OC Crime B Division, New Amsterdam.
Yours faithfully,
Egland Gomes
