By Leroy Smith
The Major Crimes Unit of the Guyana Police Force has added the 23-year-old murder case of Monica Reece to its list of soon to be reopened investigations.
This was confirmed by Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum.
His confirmation of the reopening of the case comes on the heels of calls by members of the public to reopen that particular investigation, as it has long been suspected that there were aspects of the crime that were not properly probed by investigators back then.
Addressing members of the Guyana Police Force following their annual route march to mark their anniversary, Commissioner of Police Seelall Persaud announced that the Force has been inundated with calls and letters for the reopening of certain investigations.
He believes that the calls and letters are now coming because persons are cognisant of the many decade old cases that the police have revisited and cracked in recent months.
Pressed by media operatives to name some of the cases that are to be reopened, the Crime Chief confirmed that among those are the designer, Trevor Rose’s murder, as well as Sheema Mangar’s Murder.
He said that the Sheema Mangar murder is on the front burner of the investigations to be revisited.
“The Monica Reece I recently requested that file when we locate that file we will be analysing the evidence and also we will make a determination and make contact with the police Legal Advisor and we know for sure that the public, they have been advocating but I would not be too ambitious and tell you that look we are going to solve the case, we have to look at the evidence analyse and review those statements and then engage the police legal advisor on the way forward,” Blanhum told the media.
The body of Monica Reece was dumped from a pickup back in April 1993 on Good Friday. The police had picked up a suspect and questioned him and also detained a vehicle he sometimes drove, but shortly after, the lack of evidence caused him to be released and the vehicle returned.
In the case of Sheema Mangar, the young lady was an Employee of a City Bank and was waiting to catch a minibus to head home when she was robbed and her phone snatched from her by persons in a vehicle. The young lady held onto the car and the driver failed to stop, dragging her several feet before she eventually no longer had the strength to hang onto the car. She died as a result of injuries sustained.
DNA samples were taken and sent out of Guyana for testing and those samples disappeared, leaving investigators at their wits end trying to solve the case up to this day.
Trevor Rose, a designer was killed,execution style on the East Bank Demerara Public Road back in 2014.
There were claims that his killing was as a result of a road rage, while others suggested that he may have been linked to some other form of activities which led to him being targeted.
During the shooting death of Rose back in 2014, a taxi driver and a female companion that was in the vehicle with Rose at the time, were also injured. It was clear that the shooter concentrated his efforts and fire power on the designer, who was killed on the spot.
