-gas cylinder used to set off explosion
Police have opened up a murder probe into the discovery of the burnt bodies of a cambio dealer and his wife at Turkeyen after it was found that the man’s hands had been tied behind his back and a gas cylinder was used to set off an explosion which gouged a hole in their bedroom on Thursday night.
Confirmed dead are Totaram Mohotoo called `Beer’ and `Fat man’, age 54, and Bhagmattie Mohotoo called `Dolly’, age 48, of Area Q, Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara. The couple lived alone as their two children reside abroad.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday afternoon told Stabroek News that when Mohotoo was found, his hands were tied behind his back which shows that “we are clearly dealing with murder”. He said that his wife was found lying beside him and from all indications, she was not the target.
The crime chief said that a wooden door on the bottom flat was found open but the padlocks on a grill door were cut. He stated that the businessman had cameras on his property and the “screen” was located in his bedroom. The man noted that he would have seen whoever came to the door and might have gone down to greet them.
He said that the possibility exists that the person at the door was known to Mohotoo.
Asked about the images captured from the cameras, he said that the investigators have nothing to work with since the DVR was destroyed in the fire. At the scene, this newspaper had noticed one camera on the ceiling at the front exterior of the house.
According to Persaud, investigators will be doing a lot of background work and making contact with the man’s business associates.
He said that Mohotoo was a money changer at one time and operated out of America Street. He said the man had “been off the road for a few years” having moved up in life.
At one time, he said the man operated a bar in the city.
Asked if he was known to the police, Persaud responded in the affirmative stating that many years back he had been charged with either a murder or manslaughter which occurred at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara.
He said that the man would have been on remand before he was acquitted of the charge.
He stressed that he did not believe that that past incident had anything to do with the man’s death. Persaud said that Mohotoo had not been on the police radar of recent.
“With the type of business he was involved, robbery could have been the motive”, he said adding that no one in the area reported seeing anyone suspicious.
Based on what Persaud explained, the killers fetched a gas bottle which was connected to a gas stove into the couple’s bedroom. He said that it was this gas bottle that exploded and caused the hole in the wall of the bedroom. He noted that gas bottle fragments were found. “…they set up something (using the bottle)’, he added.
Beyond recognition
When the fire was spotted around midnight, no one knew that the couple was inside and it was only after the flames were extinguished that the firefighters found the couple’s remains.
They were burnt beyond recognition and their bodies were removed from the scene around 10 am. The remains are at the Lyken’s Funeral Home awaiting a post-mortem examination.
Police in a press release said that around 0035 hours the couple’s charred remains were found in the bedroom of the upper flat of their home. The release said that the home had been destroyed by “a fire of so far unknown origin” adding that investigations were in progress.
Many relatives and friends gathered outside the man’s home as the police and fire officials conducted their investigations and they were heard expressing shock at the incident.
The interior of the two-storey structure was reduced to rubble.
There was a huge hole in the front left hand side of the house which residents said was caused by the explosion. It is believed that the couple was killed before their house was set on fire.
As the bodies were being removed there were teary eyes and wails erupted among the relatives who had gathered. One neighbour commented that she saw the woman on Thursday when she went to buy a broom from the ‘broom lady’.
One resident recalled that around midnight loud sounds like ‘gunshots or squibs’ erupted and shortly after a security guard at a nearby house started shouting for ‘Fire! Fire!’
The resident said that when they looked up initially nothing was seen but then when they looked in the other direction, thick smoke was coming from the side of the house where the couple’s bedroom is located.
The resident said that the couple’s car was parked in the yard and a 4×4 vehicle was parked outside on the parapet. The 4×4, the resident recalled, “start up by itself” like if someone had turned it on. After efforts were made to contact the couple and there was no response, it was concluded that the couple was not home as it was recalled that sometime earlier a taxi was blowing its horn in front of the house for a while before it drove off.
The resident told this newspaper that between 5 to 10 minutes after the fire was first spotted there was a loud explosion.
By this time persons started jumping the fence and trying to break the lock on the gate to get the car out of the yard.
The resident said that fire engines were on the scene 10 -15 minutes after the fire started and the three tenders that responded had an adequate water supply to fight the blaze.
Suspicious car
Shiek Yassin who described himself as a close friend of the couple said that he was at a bar along University Road when around 00 35 hours he heard “two gunshots”. He said that about two and a half minutes later a big explosion was heard followed by “fire in the air”.
According to the man since he was about 30 seconds away he decided to “drive across” to see what was happening and when he arrived in the area, he found his friends’ house engulfed in flames.
Yassin told reporters that he jumped the fence. The man said that he managed to climb onto the roof of a shed that is attached to the house. While trying to break a window, he cut his wrist which later required 11 stitches.
He said that after seeking medical attention at the hospital he returned to the scene and went into the house and found the couple lying in their bedroom on their bed. The man said that heading into the area after hearing the explosion, he saw a white car with a dark tint and which had a number plate in the PPP series driving out.
According to Yassin, the couple never expressed any fears for their safety to him.
Meanwhile, Bhagmattie’s sister, Sandra Ramjit said that she received the news of the fire sometime before 1 am and when she arrived the house was on fire. She said that she was unable to “get in” because the firemen were working. She said that from outside she began shouting her sister’s call name but she couldn’t hear anything. “All I heard is `this is a crime scene. This is a crime scene business’”, she recalled adding that it was at this point that she suspected that people had died in the house.
She praised the firemen for their efforts. “It was a big blaze and they worked well. They did their job. They had water and everything”, she said.
According to the woman, people are saying that they heard gunshots and explosions. She said that she can’t say what might have happened while noting that “it is so fishy. It ain’t sound right because if you are in your room and fire hit you, you must run and if you run to the door and there is smoke and if you fall down you must fall by the step or the chair…but they were lying in bed”.
The ex-police officer said that later one of her nephews went into the house and he came out crying. She said that he told them that he saw the bodies, which was confirmation that the couple who have been married for at least 31 years, had died.
She too said that her sister was never fearful about anything.
Meanwhile fire chief Marlon Gentle said that around 0035 hours the Guyana Fire Service received several calls from the police and residents and two units – one from Campbellville and the other from Alberttown – were dispatched. He said that the unit from Campbellville was the first to arrive at the scene and the fire-fighters reported that the entire upper flat of the Lot 22 residence was ablaze. Additional “back up’, he said was requested and as such a third unit was dispatched.
He said that his men found no major challenge in tackling the blaze noting that because the fire had already engulfed the entire upper flat, they had to go from room to room to extinguish it.
Gentle said that subsequently things changed from it being a fire scene to a crime scene. He said that the police are currently “taking the lead” in the investigation.
