Public’s help sought to identify two bodies

The public’s help is being sought to identify two bodies that were found in separate incidents in the North Eastern Division on Sunday and yesterday.

In the latest incident around 9 am yesterday, a homeless man said to be living under the bridge of the San Juan River, known as the Silver Mill Bridge, was seen floating in the water.

The body was spotted by passers-by, floating face down in the waterway, which is located near the traffic lights just before the San Juan Croissee.

The victim, who had been clad only in a pair of brown boxer shorts, was pulled from the water by members of the Hunters Search and Rescue Team led by Shamshudeen Ayub.

People operating businesses close by said the victim was well known in the area, and had set up a makeshift dwelling on the concrete slabs along the river bank.

He was known for sleeping on a tattered and stained mattress which had been placed directly under the bridge to shelter whenever it rained.

He was also seen daily washing clothes and bathing in the river, and was accustomed to begging for food and money from those walking past and also residents living close by.

And in an incident reported around 8.30 am on September 8, the partially decomposing body of a man was reported to be under the Maritime Overpass, Beetham Highway.

Police officers responding to a call found the victim lying face down in the overgrown bushes.

Believed to be in his mid-sixties, the deceased was clad in black pants and a blue shirt.

There were no discernible marks of violence about the body to indicate to lawmen how he died.

Autopsies were ordered to be conducted at the Forensic Science Centre (FSC), St James, on both victims, who were of East Indian descent.

However, this cannot be done until the victims are identified.

As news of Sunday’s John Doe was circulated via social media up to yesterday, relatives of a man who has been missing for the past several weeks arrived at the FSC hoping to see the body to ascertain if it was him.

The relatives were advised by officials to continue checking hospitals and mortuaries.

—Anna-Lisa Paul