When a foul scent started emanating from an Eping Avenue apartment yesterday afternoon the caretaker was forced to break in, only to discover the dead bodies of a Cuban doctor and a woman.
The bodies of Dr Guillermo Martinez, a 58-year-old physiotherapist, and 47-year-old Usawatie Persaud were taken from the scene by attendants from the Lyken’s Funeral Home some time before 6 pm.
When this newspaper arrived at the Eping Avenue, Bel Air, Georgetown location just after 4.30 pm investigators were already present. Government Pathologist Nehaul Singh and crime scene technicians arrived shortly after. Singh, when approached for a comment as he was leaving the scene, confirmed that they discovered the bodies of a male and a female. Both, he said, had been dead for approximately two days. The pathologist also said “there are marks of violence” but he did not specify whether these were seen on one or both bodies.
A police source later informed Stabroek News that the woman’s throat had been slit and it is suspected that Martinez ingested a poisonous substance. Later, police were seen fetching several bloodied items and a small bottle from the apartment.
Late last evening police issued a release which gave Persaud’s address as Cumberland, Canje, Berbice. The woman’s body, the release said, bore stab wounds to the throat, chest and abdomen. Two knives were recovered from the scene, one was blood-stained.
Though approached several times for a comment the caretaker refused to speak.
An individual, who requested anonymity, said Martinez had lived in the ground floor apartment for a few years and also conducted his private practice from there.
As regards the woman, the person said, “I know that she’s from Berbice but I’ve never spoken to her… I can’t really say if she lived there with him. I know that her son, he’s in his early 20s, was at the building this morning looking for her.”
The person said that according to the caretaker’s wife the doctor was last seen on Tuesday morning.
“I was also told by the caretaker’s wife that someone visited the doctor that day as well and it was after the visitor left that the doctor was seen,” the person said.
The rest of Tuesday went by and on Wednesday persons began wondering what had happened to Martinez when they didn’t see him. Stabroek News learnt that the apartment was locked from the inside.
“Several of the tenants and even the caretaker knocked at his door and the front window where his bedroom is but got no response,” they recalled. “It was after the foul smell started coming from the apartment that the caretaker decided to get a look inside.”
Mesh, used to keep bugs out, was peeled back from Martinez’s front bedroom window by the caretaker. The caretaker then managed to open the louvres and was immediately assaulted by the scent and sight of the dead man and woman stretched out on the bed.
The bodies were seen around 4 pm and police were immediately called to the scene.
Shortly after investigators left the scene another Cuban doctor arrived. He identified himself as Dr Rahul and said he was a friend of the dead doctor, and was shocked when reporters informed him of Martinez’s death.
Martinez, he said, came from Havana, Cuba and had been in Guyana for approximately seven years. His friend, Rahul said, had been conducting a private practice.
“He was a nice man, a friendly man…I have to inform our colleagues,” Rahul stated.
He further said that Martinez used to live in Kingston, Georgetown. When questioned about Persaud, Rahul said he wasn’t aware that his friend had a girlfriend and didn’t know the woman.
