Bom Fim man found murdered in Lethem

Dead: Morgan Gonsalves
Dead: Morgan Gonsalves

Police in Lethem are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a 22-year-old Bom Fim, Roraima, Brazil resident, whose lifeless body was discovered on the Takutu bridge trail yesterday morning.

The deceased has been identified as Morgan Gonsalves, a shopkeeper. He was born in Guyana but subsequently moved to Brazil to live. Stabroek News was told that Gonsalves’ body was discovered by immigration officers in the area, and later identified by his brother, Ronson Gonsalves, who went searching for him after he did not return home on Saturday night.

Commander of ‘F’ Division, Kevin Adonis last night explained that Morgan was found on a trail leading to the Takutu bridge at around 7am, in a pool of blood and with abrasions about his body, including to his head.

While the motive of the suspected murder remains unclear, the commander said based on information received, Morgan had some issues with some Brazilians and they are working to apprehend the individuals to aid with the investigations.

Ronson, in a telephone interview yesterday, related to this newspaper that his brother left home on Saturday night and went to a night spot in Tabatinga, Lethem with a relative. He related that when the relative was ready to leave the nightspot, his brother was sleeping, and despite attempts to wake him, he remained sleeping.

“I don’t know what happened then, but my aunt son-in-law left him in the bar…this (yesterday) morning, before my mother went to work, she asked me to go search for him because he didn’t come home,” he explained.

As he was walking across the trail from Brazil, Ronson said, he saw he saw his brother lying on the trail and thought he was sleeping.

“I say in my mind ‘look Morgan there sleeping’. So I walk up to go pick him up but I see two immigration officers there too and I walked pass a bit and saw him with blood on his skin…I said in my mind, ‘my brother dead, my brother dead’ and I turned back but the officers said ‘don’t touch him’,” Ronson recalled.

Ronson indicated that after he found his brother, he informed his mother, who was shocked. “I tell mommy and mommy was like ‘you are lying’, but I said ‘mommy I won’t lie’ and she could not have believe. We went to the trail and we saw him, but they didn’t allow us to touch him,” the brother lamented.

The family, the brother, said suspects that Morgan had confronted some men who reportedly stole their sister’s friend’s phone. The family believes that it was during the confrontation, Morgan was attacked.

The body is at the Lethem Hospital Mortuary awaiting an autopsy.