Cousins were murdered on Coconut farm dumped in bushes nearby
The evidence available to the police in relation to the murder of teen cousins Joel and Isaiah Henry suggests that the two young men were murdered on a privately owned coconut farm and then dumped a short distance away from the farm in a clump of bushes.
The bodies of the two were found by residents on Sunday afternoon after they launched a search for the boys who left for the Backdam Saturday but never returned. The search started late Saturday night an concluded with their remains being found.
Below is a full (unedited) statement from the Guyana Police Force on the matter.
Police are investigating the alleged murder of Joel Henry, age 18 yrs., a labourer and Isaiah Henry, age 16 yrs, a student of Lots 26 and 32 Number 3 Village, West Coast Berbice, respectively, which occurred sometime between 05:30 hrs on 2020-09-05 and 15:30 hrs on 2020-09-06.
Enquiries disclosed that the victims left their homes about 05:30 hrs on 2020-09-05 for Cotton Tree Village, West Coast Berbice to pick coconut to sell but had not returned as of 20:00 hrs on the said date which caused the mother of Isaiah to lodge a missing person report at the Blairmont Police Station at 20:30 hrs on 2020-09-05 and the mother of Joel Henry to lodge a a missing person report at 09:00 hrs on 2020-09-06, since neither of them had returned home unto that time.
Further, about 09:00 hrs on 2020-09-06 relatives and friends of the victims formed a search party and went into Cotton Tree Village backdam to find the two victims.
About 15:30 hours on 2029/09/06 while conducting the search in the backdam of the said village (Cotton Tree, WCB) the bodies of Isaiah Henry and Joel Henry were found about 600 feet from each other in clumps of bushes near to a coconut farm.
Isaiah Henry’s body was seen lying on his back with his head pointing in an eastern direction and feet pointing west. The body was clad in gray short pants, light green long sleeve jersey and bare footed. A wound was seen on his throat, two to his left side head, one on his fore head and one to the left side chin.
Joel Henry’s body was found with the upper half in a hole. The body was clad in a black long pants, green long sleeve jersey with white fine strip and bare footed. The body bore a mark around his throat and bruises on the fingers of his right hand.
The scene was processed by ranks of the Crime Scene Unit who observed no blood stains nor weapon around the bodies or within the immediate vicinty.
Further examination of a nearby coconut farm owned by the suspect now in custody showed what appeared to be blood stains on the ground. Also, a coconut peeler and some peeled coconuts were seen at the said location.
The bodies were escorted to Fort Wellington Public Hospital where they were both pronounced dead by a doctor on duty and were afterwards escorted to Anthony Funeral Home Mortuary where the await Post Morten Examination.
Investigations in progress
