Taxi driver detained as Major Crimes Unit takes over Canadian citizen murder probe

By Michael Jordan

Detectives from the Major Crimes Unit are questioning a taxi driver in connection with the murder of Canadian citizen Roma Dookeran, whose battered body was found at Leguan, Essequibo on March 15.

This possible breakthrough is believed to have occurred after investigators viewed security footage at the Pegasus International Hotel, which Mrs. Dookeran had entered on March 14.

The footage would reveal when she left the hotel and in whose company.

The investigators will also be checking the taxi driver’s vehicle for forensic evidence that may link him to Dookeran’s murder.

They are also likely to check security footage at the Demerara Harbor Bridge to ascertain whether the driver took the Canadian over the bridge on March 14, which is when she is believed to have been slain. They will also attempt to retrieve her belongings, including her cell phone, and check phone records for recent calls she made.

Crime Chief Wendell declined to give any details about the driver’s arrest while cautioning that the investigation is at a sensitive stage.

Dookeran, 68, was taken by airport taxi to the Pegasus International Hotel on March 14, some hours after leaving the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.

Her body was subsequently found on the Leguan foreshore. A postmortem revealed that Dookeran died from a brain haemorrhage, due to blunt trauma to the head and compression to the neck.

Investigators will be trying to ascertain why the victim, a retired manager, did not board her flight to Canada on March  14, after going to the airport.

They spoke to the airport taxi driver who took her from the airport to the Pegasus International Hotel.

Manoj Saree, one of the woman’s nephews, told police that he took his aunt to the airport at around 22:45 hrs on March 14, to catch an  American Airlines flight back to Canada. CCTV footage later showed that she departed the CJIA after she was dropped off instead of entering the departure lounge.

He said that after learning that she had not arrived home and her whereabouts were unknown, he and other relatives decided to make checks at the Ezekiel Funeral Parlour after seeing a photograph of a dead woman, who bore a resemblance to the missing aunt, on the Guyana Police Force’s Facebook page.

Seree and Baishan Lall Kuarlall, a 45-year-old medical doctor of Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, then visited the funeral home and confirmed that the victim was Mrs. Dookeran.