(Trinidad Express) Three bodies, believed to be those of three missing Chaguanas fishermen, were found floating in Port of Spain waters yesterday.
The bodies were first seen yesterday morning near the Sea Lots Fish Market, but disappeared by the time Coast Guard officers went to retrieve them.
Boat captain Ravi Ramsaran, 26, his brother Kassinath Ramsarran, 31, both of Cacandee Road, Felicity, and crew member Pream Squiries, 45, of Longdenville, left the Cunupia River, Felicity, around 3.30 p.m. on Tuesday to fish in the Gulf of Paria. They were expected to return at 10 a.m. the following day.
The surnames of the brothers are spelt differently, according to information contained on their national identification cards.
Family members believe the men were attacked and robbed at sea.
Police investigators last night said they found evidence of gunshot injuries to the bodies of the three men. They also found evidence that the hands and feet of the two brothers had been bound. The killings have taken the murder toll to 17 for the year, with all the victims dying by the gun. No one has been arrested or charged for any of the murders.
Shortly after 1 p.m. yesterday, one of the bodies—believed to be that of Squiries—was fished out of the water by Coast Guard officers two miles from the Sea Lots Fish Market.
The body was brought to a jetty near the market where it was handed over to officers from the Besson Street Police Station, led by ASP Inraj Balram and Insp Sahadeo Singh, Sgt Sean Coggins and Cpl Budri.
Later in the afternoon, there was confirmation from the police that two more bodies, believed to be those of the two brothers, were found by Coast Guard officers off the north-western peninsula. The bodies were brought to shore at one of the Coast Guard’s facilities in Chaguaramas. Relatives of the missing men quickly arrived at the scene and positively identified their bodies in the presence of police.
The district medical officer visited the scenes where the three bodies were brought to shore, examined the corpses and ordered them removed to the Forensic Science Centre for a post-mortem on Monday.
Ravi Ramsaran is the father of a three-month-old baby, and his brother is the father of a three-year-old girl.
The boat, The Land of Knod, owned by the Ramsarrans’ father, was recovered on Thursday off Point Fortin.
The relatives also received word that a body was found floating in a river near Caroni. However, when they turned up there, they found nothing. The Ramsarrans’ sister, Baby Ragbir, 39, said relatives went to the Besson Street Police Station yesterday morning, but police told them the bodies had been seen at Sea Lots but were not yet recovered.
Ragbir said her brothers had no enemies.
“We suspect foul play. They (Coast Guard officers) only found the boats alone. There was no equipment in the boat—only a sneaker, and none of them had on sneakers,” she said.
“We have been getting plenty hoax calls. Just now someone called and said a body came up by the river, but nothing came up there. Then someone else said a body came up at Carli Bay, but the Coast Guard patrols there said there was nothing. Something is fishy,” Ragbir told the Express.
Police said the Cunupia River was often used by people involved in the illegal drug trade. Investigations are continuing.
