Relatives of 31-year-old Teejay Roxroy Prince who has been missing since December 2022 are appealing to the public to assist them in locating him and are calling on the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to thoroughly investigate the disappearance.
Prince, a mason, whose address was listed as Lot 35 Vigilance South, East Coast Demerara, but was residing in Buxton with his aunt during the time of his disappearance, was last heard from by his relatives on December 17, 2022. However, two of his sisters who asked not to be named, on Monday told Stabroek News that they last heard from Prince on December 17 when he called them on the phone.
“We last hear from him on December 17, but on December 1st, I saw him on Cummings Street and we talk and so. After the first, my mother spoke with him and then after that going unto the 17th nobody heard from him since,” said one of the sisters.
The sister said that Prince had been residing with his aunt in Buxton for some two years after he had moved from his grandmother who has since migrated from the country. “He used to live with his grandmother but after she ended up going out the country and live, he started to live with his aunt in Buxton, he living with her about two years now, but he used to be between her and his girlfriend who live nearby to them in Buxton.”
She said that after realizing that they hadn’t heard or seen him for quite a while after the 17th, they decided to make checks with the aunt who kept telling them that he was fine and that he was by her place all the time. “When we realized that we didn’t hear from him or he wasn’t calling or so, we ask the aunt where he was and she kept saying that he was alright and that he’s by her but we still weren’t hearing anything from him and we used to keep messaging her and you could’ve see that she was reading the message but wasn’t replying… is till when she heard that we were going to Buxton she replied and trying to tell us not to come that he was alright and by her”, one of the sisters said.
The woman went on to say, “So when we went there, she telling we that he was at his girlfriend and that how her fella [the aunt’s reputed husband] saw him and stuff like that. But when we go by the girl she now said that she didn’t see him for a while and she don’t know where he was.”
Meanwhile, another sister added that they heard through the “grapevine” that Prince and a family member of the girlfriend were involved in a fight during the Christmas season and it was after that he disappeared, and as such they filed a missing person’s report at a police station on the East Coast of Demerara.
According to the sisters, they filed the report in late December and when they went back to the station in January for an update on the matter, they were informed that the police ranks had lost their statement and report.
Displeased with the way in which the matter was being handled, the siblings said that they then went to the Commissioner of Police himself and reported what had occurred at the station. “We want the police to do a better job because when we went and made a missing person’s report they said they would look into it, now when we gone back in January they said that they can’t find the file with the statement that we made. They sent out that missing report only the other day because we had to go the commissioner himself… when we went to the commissioner and told him what happened about the statement, he got mad and that’s how they started investigating the matter.”
They noted that during the initial stage of the investigation, both the aunt and the girlfriend of Prince were arrested and placed in custody but were subsequently released on station bail.
The distressed sisters said that Prince has always been known to make contact with them frequently, which makes them question his sudden inability to do so and his whereabouts. “Teejay is not a person like that, he would normally call his mother and call his sister and nieces and check up on us and ask us how we’re doing and so on.”
They are urging the public to come forward with any credible and useful information that might help in locating their missing brother and are calling on the police force to do a better job. “We’re appealing to the public to help us locate him and we also want the police to continue their investigation and do as much as they can to find him.”
The GPF had issued a missing bulletin for Prince on March 17 which stated that he was last seen in the village of Friendship, ECD on the December 17. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the man can contact the nearest police station or his family members on telephone numbers 696-1912 or 666-3117.
