A 41-year-old Bush Lot, Berbice truck driver went missing after he left for a stroll on the East Coast Demerara seawall last month.
Rajnarine Hukumchand, also known as Jacob, left his sister’s Happy Acres home at 8 o’clock on the morning of October 15. He told her that he was going to take a walk along the sea wall not far away from her home, but never returned.
The missing man’s brother, Shurlan Hukumchand, told Stabroek News that Rajnarine has no history of mental illness, was not suffering from any disease neither was he an alcoholic. Shurlan said his brother wasn’t the type of person to vanish for days at a time.
He said that the matter had been reported to the police a day or two after his brother had disappeared, but to date they had not contacted them, and it did not appear as though they were investigating the matter.
“He was visiting our sister who lives in Happy Acres,” Shurlan explained. “My sister told us that he left at 8 that morning and said he was going to walk by the seawall and that he would be back by 10, but he never came back.”
Rajnarine was wearing a grey cap, a cream shirt with stripes and brown boots when he was last seen by his sister. He was not wearing any jewellery but he did have his cellular phone and probably a small amount of cash, Shurlan said.
The brother said they had searched for Rajnarine that same afternoon at the seawall, but everyone they had questioned in the vicinity had not seen anyone of Rajnarine’s description. They had also searched the villages between Pegasus and Mahaicony thoroughly, and repeated efforts to contact the man on his cellular phone had been unsuccessful.
“I call his number once an hour every day, but it keeps saying that it is turned off,” a deeply disturbed Shurlan said. “I walk many miles daily going from place to place looking for my brother. I’ve combed all the city hospitals. It is strange that he just disappear just like that.”
Rajnarine was described by his brother as a friendly person who did not have any enemies. He was a truck driver who worked at the Blairmont sugar estate with a wife and two sons to go home to.
“We don’t know what happen to him… but we are praying to the maker that he is somewhere out there alive and well. All we want is for him to contact us in some way and tell us that he’s ok,” Shurlan said.
Shurlan said that his brother’s two young sons would call him and ask, “Cha-choo [uncle] where dada deh? When dada go come home?” That, the man said, has been the hardest part of the entire ordeal.
Anyone who might have seen Rajnarine is asked to contact his brothers Shurlan or Vibert at 614-5308 and 609-1586, respectively.
