Twelve years after her husband was brutally murdered, Cheryl Bess got a glimmer of hope that justice was near after she was informed that one of the alleged shooters was in police custody.
However, in less than 24 hours the man was released from custody without any intense questioning. With this development and the fact that so much time has passed, Bess is fearful her husband’s killers will never be caught.
On October 30, 2004, city council employee Andrew Bess, called ‘Fineman’ and ‘Troy Bess,’ and his wife were in their home in Postal Housing Scheme, North Ruimveldt when five unmasked men, armed with guns, forced their way into their house, which adjoined their grocery store. They were held at gunpoint by the men. After fatally shooting Andrew Bess in the chest, the men escaped with $62,000 and some gold jewellery.
Enice Barnwell, a South Ruimveldt man, was charged with the murder on March 15, 2005, after he was allegedly identified as one of the invaders. He was, however, released about a year later owing to the lack of evidence.
Cheryl Bess had previously expressed the belief that an affair her husband might have had with a female colleague might have been the motive for his death, after it ended badly and it was later learnt that one of the gunmen was related to the woman.
Speaking to Sunday Stabroek recently, Bess said that it was her daughter who spotted the alleged shooter and called her. Whenever the man sees them, he would quickly disappear.
The police at the nearby outpost, she said, were informed and the man was detained. He was later taken to Brickdam Police Station for questioning.
During a confrontation at the police station, she said, the alleged shooter told the police that he did not know her. However, she was adamant that the man had a distinct voice and she recalled that previously he had approached her at Bourda Market and had accused her of visiting his Bare Root, East Coast Demerara home along with the police and kicking down his door. She denied this claim.
She said that she later left the police station and when she returned the next day she was shocked to hear that the man had already been released. “Ah must shock because is a murder man. You can’t pick up a murder man and just loose he because he brother went in the police force. How could you do that?” the visibly distraught woman said, while noting that there was a claim that the alleged shooter was in Essequibo at the time her husband was killed. She does not believe the alibi that was given.
She has since concluded that the police have no time with her, her children or the investigation into her husband’s death but was adamant that she will continue to be vocal about the case.
Bess recalled that previously the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had insisted that she could not identify the alleged shooter. “…The woman up Eve Leary …the DPP, she saying I can’t pick he out because I didn’t see he face. She tell me that, that I can’t pick he out when he is the man that come to me,” she said.
She recalled that during the attack, she was instructed, in between blows, not to look at the perpetrators’ faces.
She said the suspect was going to turn away from her husband but the one who was beating her insisted that Bess be shot and killed. She said that she pleaded with them not to kill her husband but was told to shut her mouth.
Bess said the man who had the gun kept asking for the location of the money and as a result she was familiar with his voice. “I know he voice, me ain’t stupid. I know he hand structure. I know he whole structure and then he come to meh and he tell me look how long f…king Fineman dead,” she said.
“Them [the police] ain’t got time with poor man,” Bess said, when asked if she had lost confidence in the ability of the police to apprehend and prosecute the killers. “Me God gon mek sure I get justice ’cause I going all out for justice and I gon get justice,” she later added.
Struggle
Bess told Sunday Stabroek that she struggled to take care of her children after her husband was killed. At the time of the shooting, the youngest child was three years old and the eldest was in her late teens. It was rough financially. “Yuh think it easy? You think it easy minin chirren without a man, without a help? I go till in the interior and running a big, big shop, vomiting diesel and gas because ah gotta pull it through hose fuh min’ them,” she said.
Bess said that after realising that her children needed a parent close to them, she decided to start a business in the city and she used that income to care for them. “I just want justice. I thought Mr Granger say he gon get justice,” she said, while noting that she worked hard during the elections campaign and her reward should have been the reopening of the investigation and tracking down of those involved in her husband’s death. “I din just want justice, I did want the country change but me ain’t seeing justice,” she said sadly.
She recalled that during a forum held at the Square of the Revolution, she provided all the necessary information along with newspaper clippings but nothing was ever done with that information. She said that in May last year she wrote to Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan. “Till now he ain’t got the decency to call me …no justice,” she said, while asserting that she is being failed all around after she witnessed her husband being killed like a dog. “Even if you kill a dog you does go to the station because you want justice because you does mine de dog, much less human. No justice this country don’t have for poor people,” she stressed
Bess said that she cannot afford to be corrupt or dishonest in her pursuit of justice as she is god fearing.
She said she had plans to approach the President to vent her frustration.
Bess informed that she had also visited the Police Complaints Authority and the Chairman Cecil Kennard promised to look into the matter. She said when this was done, she was informed that the police had indicated that nothing could be done as the file was lost. “How could a file lost from a murder man?” she said, while insisting that this was all part of efforts to cover up the case given that the suspect’s brother was a policeman at the time. “If meh husband did do them anything bad, we didn’t min’.
“You can’t come in somebody house and kill them like a dag in front of me and me chirren,” she said. “Why Granger ain’t looking into these thing? They gone till to Monica Reece,” she said.
