A post-mortem examination conducted yesterday on the corpse of Jamaican Beverley Gardner, who was found dead in a city hotel last month, uncovered over 60 cocaine pellets in her stomach, police officials said yesterday.
Stabroek News was told that the autopsy had been delayed until the woman could be properly identified. Gardner, also called Anesta Gardner, 37, was found dead in a room at the New York Car Wash and Guest House, located at the corner of Camp and Princes streets, around 1 am on January 22.
The autopsy was only conducted after the woman’s mother travelled here and identified her body at the Georgetown Public Hospital morgue.
Police, in a press release issued yesterday, said the “cause of death has not been given as yet; however a number of ingested pellets suspected to be cocaine were found in the body.”
A senior police officer later confirmed that it was indeed cocaine in the over 60 pellets that were found in the woman’s body. The discovery has led to suspicion that the woman was a drug mule.
The official said Anthony Lloyd Neville Morrison, the Jamaican man who checked into the hotel with the woman, was still at large. Asked if the man may have already fled the country, the official said that he is unsure but knew that several checks were made at the various ports.
The duo arrived in Guyana legally and had been staying at the Guest House for a few days when Gardner’s body was found.
It is believed that her companion was also a drug mule and that he may have fled out of fear after realising that she had fallen ill.
Persons at the guest house subsequently became suspicious and called the police. When ranks later arrived, they forced their way into the room and found the woman dead. She had no marks of violence on her body. The police later issued a wanted bulletin for Morrison, 36, saying he was wanted for questioning in relation to Gardner’s death.
