Justice, answers and financial assistance are what the relatives of the ill-fated Island Princess crew are seeking almost six months after the attack.
Who killed Titus Buckery Nascimento, Rickford Bannister, Mahendra Singh called Sunil and Ryan Chin and why, are questions which remain unanswered, since the perpetrators left no clues on the abandoned “cargo vessel” which was later found drifting off the coast of Grenada. How the vessel ended up there is also baffling.
Police in an official release had said that the quartet left Parika with the vessel on September 26 last for Friendship, East Bank Deme-rara, in what was described as a “cargo vessel.” They were last contacted about 18:30 hours on the same day and had given their location as the Essequibo River mouth. Efforts to contact them about half an hour later, however, proved futile.
Then on September 29 and 30 respectively, the bodies of Nascimento and Singh were found in the vicinity of Black Rock, Wakenaam and Hamburg Island, both located in the Essequibo River. The bodies bore gunshot injuries and had been disembowelled.
The release added that the police had since sought the assistance of Interpol and other friendly law enforcement agencies through the US Drug Enforcement Agency, and had provided photographs of the vessel and other related information.
Days later on October 2, the disembowelled body of Chin bearing suspected gunshot wounds in the head and leg was discovered on the Queenstown Foreshore, Essequibo River.
The three bodies were badly decomposed and because of their state were buried immediately after on-the-spot post mortem examinations.
They were positively identified by relatives based on a cellular phone, pants, a gold tooth, a watch and in the case of Chin, the tattoo of a cross.
On October 6, the bodies were exhumed and DNA samples taken, after which relatives were allowed to perform final rites before they were reburied.
To date the fourth body has not been found.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud when contacted recently said that there had been no further movement in the investigation into the case of the Island Princess and her missing crew members but it was “still open.”
“There are no active leads in the case,” Persaud said adding that because of this there had been no movement in the investigation.
Several persons including a prominent city businessman were held for questioning shortly after the vessel went missing, but were subsequently released.
When Stabroek News spoke with the relatives of the dead men last week, their grief was still palpable and their tears flowed.
At Bannister’s Lot 218 Herstelling, East Bank Demerara (EBD) home, his wife Angalene Dedydial said that she thinks about him often and misses him a lot. Though his body has not been found, the woman was certain he was dead, because if he had been alive, he would have contacted her by now.
Sitting in a hammock outside her house, Debydial said that she did not want to speculate on what may have happened but expressed the view that her husband had been killed because he might have known something. She described Bannister as the type of person who would keep a secret.
Bannister and Rohan Paul called ‘Jango,’ who had chartered the vessel from a businessman were very close, and according to Debydial, the two had been apart for almost six years as Paul had migrated. One Sunday morning, she recalled, they were at the Meadow Brook wharf, when she first met Paul and the men were elated to see each other again.
Less than a month later, Bannister was working for him.
Fuel business
Debydial related to Stabroek News that Bannister had told her Paul had bought the vessel and wanted him to become the security guard for it.
She said that for three weeks he was always at Friendship where the vessel had been moored, and at one point she became concerned about exactly what he was doing there. She said sometimes he would spend a few days there, and when she questioned him about it he would tell her that he had to wait on Nascimento to come and relieve him.
When she questioned him further he told her that “it was fuel and that it was built for business,” and she recalled telling him to be careful.
She said that one day he got a telephone call and he later told her he had to go to Friendship; she responded by saying that he wasn’t going anywhere.
However, Bannister subsequently got another call and after dressing he asked her for $1000 to catch a taxi. She refused to give him the money and instead reprimanded him for all the time he was spending at Friendship and not giving her any of the money he was suppose to be working for.
Bannister stormed out, but came back later, telling her he had informed them that he couldn’t get transportation.
The following morning, he quietly left the house and according to Debydial “Ah never see he back.”
Three days later on September 25, she spoke with him but was unaware that Bannister was on the vessel, and subsequently learnt that this was the second trip which was being made.
During their last conversation on September 26, he told her that he would be home before 10 pm but called back and said that it would not be until morning. When he called he was somewhere near Parika on his way to Friendship, and Debydial said that her husband had explained that by the time he reached his destination and completed his work it would be too late.
The next day she waited for him and when he did not come she began to fear that something sinister had happened to him.
“Ay praying for somebody to come and tell me wha happen or wha cause this,” Debydial told Stabroek News as she spoke of the 10 years they had been together; “Me still wha fuh know, why they kill them.”
She described him as a good and quiet person who was very loving.
Boat sinking
Nascimento left his Lot 379 Third Street, Herstelling home after he received a phone call about a boat sinking.
His wife of 21 years Shanti Rickiram said that on September 25, a man called the house and spoke to Nascimento. When she questioned him about the conversation he replied that he had to go to Friendship urgently because the boat was sinking. She said he then left without drinking the tea she had made for him.
He called later that day, Rickiram recalled, saying he was coming home the following day. However, he called the following night to amend that to the following morning. During that telephone conversation, the woman said that he told her they were at Parika and were headed to Friendship. Nascimento also told his wife that Bannister was ill so “they hussling to come home.” The man was apparently vomiting, perhaps because this was his first trip on the sea.
Rickiram said that subsequently Paul kept calling to inquire about the whereabouts of her husband. This was when she realized that something had happened. The woman said that initially she was not too concerned because her husband worked on sea- bob boats regularly, and believed that this was one such trip.
“Is when ah see de thing in the papers that ah suspect that something wrong. Ah start trying to call he pun he phone but it keep going to voicemail,” Rickiram told this newspaper.
The woman said that she had accepted that her husband was dead and she would probably never know what happened.
She said too that since his disappearance, her two children aged 4 and 12 had been asking for him.
She was not satisfied with the police investigation, she said, as they were not keeping her abreast with what was happening.
“Ah glad for justice… Me ain’t even getting no financial help for the children. Ah does wuk but that ain’t enough,” she said.
Rickiram stated that she cannot collect any money from NIS because she doesn’t have her husband’s death certificate.
Over at Singh’s Covent Garden, EBD home, his wife Savita Ramphul said that she just wondered who committed the murders. She also said that she was surprised that the police were not keeping in contact with her.
Ramphul recalled that on September 25 last, Singh told her that he was going to check a boat at Parika but he never returned. She spoke to him again the following day and he told her that he was in the Demerara River heading to Friendship. Singh who was an engineer was no stranger to working at sea since he had been doing that since the age of 17.
Prior to the Island Princess, he had worked on another vessel, and when he left that day, Ramphul said that she thought it was there he was heading.
On October 1, a media house contacted her about her husband’s death and she immediately went to police headquarters, Eve Leary where she was shown a watch which she identified as Singh’s.
The woman was adamant while speaking to this newspaper that Paul knew something which could throw light on the fate of his crew.
She said that she had never been told where the crew was heading or what they were going to do.
Ramphul who has a one-year-old daughter said that following her husband’s death her parents had been assisting her.
“Ay want to know who did this and ay want the police to act more,” the grieving woman said, before adding that her husband had never expressed any fears about going to sea.
“We are alright. Ah have accepted that he was killed but ah want answers,” she said.
Number still active
The relatives of Chin say that they have accepted that he is no more but like the other families they want some answers, so that they could get closure.
During a recent interview with Stabroek News the man’s elder sister, Natasha Lewis recalled that about two weeks ago, someone tried contacting a neighbour using Chin’s number. The person called about three times but unfortunately the neighbour missed the calls. However, when the call was returned, it went to voice mail.
The woman said that if it was indeed her brother he would have called relatives and not a neighbour.
She recalled how shocked she was when she learnt of the incident and said that until now, no one had contacted the family even though the number had been printed in the newspapers.
She said that since then she had called Chin’s cellular phone several times, but never got through, adding that on one occasion her mother called and a man who answered said that it was the wrong number before disconnecting.
“Everyone cries for justice but we need closure,” she said. According to her, their mother Sherade Chin is not coping well and on March 26 there was a little family gathering to celebrate her brother’s birthday.
Lewis during the interview appealed for some sort of financial aid for her brother who was previously supported by Chin.
“I am disappointed with how things happened [following the incident]… It is very upsetting and I am very angry about the whole situation,” the woman said.
The Island Princess
The owner of the vessel Errol Prince, a miner told Stabroek News that he is currently rehabilitating the boat and will be selling it since “it has too much memories.”
He noted that the chartering business is not for him, as when he did it the first time, the vessel ended up in an accident and he had to spend a lot of money repairing it. Then it was the saga with the missing crew.
Prince said that he hoped the “fixing up” would be completed soon and wanted “to put the matter behind me.”
He promised to give each of the families “something” from the sale of the vessel, as he knew that there were children involved.
When the vessel was found, it was flooded, and investigators found nothing to suggest that anything sinister has occurred on board. Two passports and several pieces of clothing were also discovered.
After more than a month awaiting the directives of the Guyana government, Prince was able to sail the vessel home. When it arrived, it was handed over to him the following day.
Prince and Paul have dismissed suggestions that the vessel was tied to drugs.
