Police investigators seem to be no closer to solving two Robb Street murders even though in one of the cases the prime suspect has been identified. Months have passed and the families of popular pharmacist Harold Rachpaul and University of Guyana student Anthony Ting-a-Kee are still seeking justice.
A police official, giving an update on the Rachpaul case, said investigators do not have the slightest clue where the suspect is. Police had issued a wanted bulletin for Ryan Kissoon, called ‘Dhal Belly’ several months after the August 19 murder of the 84-year-old.
The official said it is suspected that he might have either fled the country through the porous borders, more than likely to Suriname, or is hiding out in the interior. Assurances have been given that although so much time has elapsed the case is still open.
Speaking to Stabroek News recently a still grief stricken Leonard called `Lenny’ seemed to have given up. He said that no one had given him any new information on his father’s case and out of frustration he has stopped checking in with the police. “Ah got to leave it in God’s hands,” he said during a telephone interview.
Leonard told this newspaper that his father is in his thoughts everyday and sometimes he tears up when he ventures into the area where his father’s body was found.
Leonard along with his son has since reopened the pharmacy. He said often people come to the store asking for the elderly man and are shocked when they hear that he had been murdered.
He said the last word he had on the investigation was that the suspect now works at sea. He expressed belief that the police can investigate that information if they wanted to.
However, he stressed that he knows one day he and his relatives will get justice for his father’s murder.
Leonard’s son Vincent was the first to discover Rachpaul’s bound and gagged body beside his bed at his Lot 75 Robb Street home on August 19. The elderly man lived alone in an apartment behind the pharmacy. The father and son had gone to the location to help with the opening and running of the pharmacy, a daily routine. The two had locked up the night before and had gone home.
It is believed that after they left Rachpaul locked up his dogs were constantly barking and it was then that he was pounced upon.
A vault where money was kept was open and Rachpaul was bound, gagged and suffocated. When he was found, he was wrapped in two sheets, which were held together by metallic cord. His hands were also tied in front of him.
Leonard has been adamant that Rachpaul was killed because he recognized the intruder/s. He had recalled that the night before the shocking discovery, he had locked up the business and was heading to his bus which was parked outside when he saw the suspect walking into the yard next door. The man “jump when he see me,” he said, but kept walking. The man noted that the suspect often limed in front of the yard nearby and would sometimes gang up there with other security guards. He said that the man worked Sunday to Sunday from afternoon to the next morning.
After the gruesome discovery, the police was given the necessary information but according to relatives they took too long to act.
Ting-a-Kee
When the 21-year-old left home his relatives had no indication that he would not be returning. He was gunned down as he sat having a late night meal with his girlfriend on the Rupert Craig Highway in the vicinity of Sheriff Street on September 2.
His girlfriend was not hurt but the two perpetrators fled the scene in Ting-A-Kee’s Toyota Vios motor car PNN 49, which was later recovered in Lamaha Park.
To this day, the young man’s relatives are still ruling out robbery.
A police official said recently that the case is still baffling investigators. The official said that while the incident took on the appearance of a robbery gone bad the pieces were not adding up. Stabroek News was told that the young man had no known enemies.
The official expressed belief that Ting-a-Kee’s girlfriend had information that could crack the case wide open. Stabroek News was unable to make contact with relatives. His father George Ting-a-Kee had told this newspaper last December that he needed justice.
Days after the incident, he had dispelled newspaper reports that his son was killed during a robbery. He said that his son had no jewellery or anything of value on his person, nor did he ever venture out with any; his wallet was still in the car when it was found.
Based on his understanding of what transpired, the two men jumped over the seawall, while his son and his girlfriend were having a meal by the car. He added also that his son was shot while outside on the driver’s side of the vehicle, and as such he iwa puzzled as to how he ended up being on the other side.
He said it was an uncle of his son’s friend who discovered the vehicle in Lamaha Park, while visiting a friend there. Ting-A-Kee related that this uncle then called his (Ting-A-Kee’s) nephew who went over to the location, called him and asked if he had a spare key to the vehicle, as it was locked. He related that he went with a spare key and that the live rounds said to have been found in his son’s vehicle, were in a little plastic bag outside the vehicle on the driver’s side.
Some residents in the area, he said, had told the friend’s uncle that some men had driven the vehicle there and parked it.
What disturbed him the most about the whole scenario is the fact that the girlfriend, who was with Anthony throughout the entire ordeal, escaped with her valuables, cell phone included, when he was made to understand that the men had demanded cash, cellular phones and other valuables.
The girlfriend was held by police for questioning but was later released. No one else had been held in connection with the incident.
