Letter Kenny boy died of forced drowning -autopsy

A post-mortem (PM) examination performed on the badly battered remains of 11-year-old Joshua Chunilall of Letter Kenny, Corentyne proved that he died as a result of drowning.

The child was reported missing on Tuesday and his body, which bore severe marks of violence, was discovered at John’s Village, Port Mourant around 1:30 pm on Thursday.

Two persons were taken into custody and a third suspect was being sought. Police sources told Stabroek News that charges may still be likely despite the result of the PM because the drowning may have been “forced.”

Joshua Chunilall

Chunilall’s relatives told Stabroek News that they were shocked that the results stated that he drowned “because the body was not even in the water. Half of the body was on the dam.”

They said too that it appeared as though the attackers tortured the boy severely, killed him and then burnt his body. They said his eyes were damaged, his ears cut off, his hand sustained chops and there were other marks of violence to the head and feet.

Pathologist, Dr Vivekanand Brijmohan confirmed to this newspaper that the PM proved that the boy died by drowning. Mud was said to be found in his throat and lungs and it seemed as though “someone pressed the head in the mud.”

The boy’s mother, Kowsilla called ‘Nalin’ and his stepfather, Mark ‘Devan’ Samaroo, plant a farm along the embankment, close to the sea defence at John’s Village.  Chunilall was sent to “watch the farm.” He went there around 9 am and was apparently attacked sometime after. Samaroo, a cane-cutter at the Albion Estate, told this newspaper last evening that he had gone to the bank and after he returned he went to the farm around 2 pm and did not see the boy. He called out to him but got no response and decided to search the area. He noticed a pair of large footprints and a pair of boot prints coming out of a large coconut farm.

He continued to search among some “big bushes,” away from the farm until it became dark, not realizing that the boy’s body was just nearby in the “small bush.” He later went to the Whim Police Station to make a report and was promptly taken into custody and released the following day.
The day before the boy’s disappearance, two young men had approached him at the farm asking for a cutlass and rope. After the boy could not be found, the stepfather said he suspected that the men “had something to do with it” and went to the home of one of them and begged him to help search for the boy. But he refused and Samaroo got angry and “broadside he with a cutlass.” The man then made a report of the beating at the station. He told this newspaper too that the other suspect was “grazing cows” near the farm and he [Samaroo] had “cleared the bush and fenced it with barbwire to keep out the cows.”

Dry-drowning

That was not the first case of a “dry drowning” on the Corentyne. In May 2008, a PM performed on 17-year-old Deokali Peter, who was reportedly raped and murdered, also proved that she died by drowning and that “mud was found in her stomach.”

Peter, a waitress at the Santa Rosa bar on the Corentyne, was lying naked at the side of the road. She was covered with mud and her clothes, which police later found nearby, were also muddy. Her body bore
scratches on the neck and forehead and black and blue marks on her right side.
Several persons had been arrested in connection with the teen’s death but subsequently released.

It appeared as though the attackers pushed her down in a nearby trench.

Dr Brijmohan had explain-ed to this newspaper that the “drowning” was as a result of a “post-immersion syndrome” and that “drowning by itself meant that a person may have taken in some water but may not die immediately [but suffer] the effects of delayed drowning.”