Black Immigrant Daily News

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On Saturday, police charged a juvenile male with murder as DNA tests identified the partially decomposed body found last month at Fond D’Or beach in Dennery as missing teenager Simeon Benjamin James.

Nineteen-year-old Simeon left his Ti Rocher, Castries home to view a football match in the Dennery valley and never returned.

After the discovery of the partially decomposed body in Dennery, reports surfaced that the teenager sustained a gunshot wound when a firearm was discharged while he was on the beach with some other youngsters.

The police have charged a sixteen-year-old in connection with Simeon’s death.

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Headline photo: Simeon Benjamin James

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Fire officers search for the body of Theresa Lynch in the Caroni River, Trincity last Thursday. Photo by Angelo Marcelle

A relative of Theresa Lynch, is calling on volunteers from private rescue groups to take their responsibilities seriously as he feels members of a certain group were more concerned about being featured in the media than finding his relative.

Lynch, 43, was swept away while trying to cross the Surrey river, Lopinot, during heavy rainfall last Wednesday morning, after tending to crops in a forested part of Surrey Village.

Lynch’s body was found on the eastern side of the Arouca river last Friday.

Speaking with Newsday at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, on Monday, one of Lynch’s relatives said while he was grateful for the help of villagers who offered to form search parties, he was disappointed in the approach of certain private organisations and felt their response was lacking in certain areas.

Recalling the afternoon when Lynch was swept away, the relative said he was approached by members of a rescue organisation but was shocked by their response when he told them about the incident.

“I got to the Arima Old Road on the bridge and they pulled up, they asked where she (Theresa) was, I said she was somewhere in the river.

“They said they had to go to Malabar to drop off a car first and then they said they would come back to search.

“Everybody’s looking for fame, everybody wants to form a group to look for missing people but they don’t have their priorities in order.

“They have to do their work more serious and if they claim finding people is what they’re about then that’s what they need to be about, because it seems they want to be in the newspapers, they want to be on the news.”

The relative said the community was still deeply shaken by the incident and he implored other residents to exercise extreme caution during heavy rainfall for their own safety.

He said throughout their searches, villagers and relatives held out hope that Lynch somehow survived being swept away.

“That shocked everyone how it happened. Everyone is still trying to figure out what happened.“

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Salisha Seebaran, speaks on the killing of Videsh Dookran, her 15-year-old grandson who was a student of Ste Madeleine Secondary School was killed and body dumped at the back of Classic Pluck Shop in Galonda. – Photo by Marvin Hamilton

THE gruesome death of schoolboy Videsh Dookran, who was chopped and shot and his body stuffed in a latrine a short distance from his Golconda home, has left relatives baffled as to the sick person or people who did it.

Dookran’s grandmother Salisha Seebaran lowered her voice and held back her tears as she asked who would want her grandson dead.

Salisha Seebaran, speaks on the killing of Videsh Dookran, her 15-year-old grandson who was a student of Ste Madeleine Secondary School was killed and body dumped at the back of Classic Pluck Shop in Galonda. – Photo by Marvin Hamilton

“Why would someone want to separate a son from his mother? He only just begun to live his life,” she told the Newsday on Monday at the Church Street, Golconda home of a relative.

She said Dookran was a Form Three student at the Ste Madeleine Secondary school, but had been suspended for fighting and was supposed to return to school on Monday morning.

“He told me he was going to school this morning,” she said explaining the fight by saying he had been provoked and retaliated.

“He said he wanted to get an education. But instead of going to school today, his mother, Devika Seebaran, had to go to the Forensic Sciences Centre to see her son’s body.”

His cousin Curt Seebaran said Dookran was tortured to death.

Curt and his grandmother Salisha Seebaran, speaks on the killing of Videsh Dookran, their 15-year-old relative who was a student of Ste Madeleine Secondary School was killed and body dumped at the back of Classic Pluck Shop in Galonda. – Marvin Hamilton

“From what we are hearing, he had two chops – one across his face and one chop on his head – and shots fired in his chest. He was stuffed in a latrine, with his broken legs sticking out.

“They real torture him. And to make sure he was dead they pumped shots into his chest and then dumped him in a latrine at an abandoned house near a pluck shop.

“What could a 15-year-old boy do to deserve this kind of torture? Cuss you? Tell you something about your mother?

“We are trying to piece this puzzle together and nothing is adding up,” Seebaran said.

“He was not involved in drugs, or guns or gangs. He liked to talk a lot, but he was not a bad person. He was always helpful.”

He said the family foundit strange that the police showed up atDookran’s mother’s home on Sunday morning to tell her of her son’s death, but by the time she got to the crime scene, his body had already been removed.

“She never got to see her son’s body. The police knew her name, where she lived and her son’s name. They showed her pictures of his body and she confirmed it was her son.

“If they knew who she was, why didn’t they come and take her to see her son’s body and identify him? And who would have tipped off the police about the body with all the relevant information?” he asked.

Police said they were tipped off by an anonymous female caller who said two of her sons, 14 and seven, were with Dookran. She said one of the brothers had a gun, shot Dookran, then dumped his body. Curt said he last saw his cousin on Saturday afternoon, at the home of a relative, where they had a cook-out. After the meal, Dookran said he was going to meet up with friends and drop off some food for another relative.

He said this was not uncommon for Dookran, who usually limed in the village and returned home religiously before 9 pm.

His mother told investigators her son left home around 2 pm on Saturday to visit a relative and friends in the village. He never returned.

Curt said Dookran was threatened by a man who accused him of sending text messages to his wife.

“But that was not Videsh who was sending those texts. We found out who it is, but the man held a grudge.

“We don’t know if that grudge he was holding caused this.”

His grandmother said she did not want to accuse anyone of killing her grandson.

“I can’t believe my grandson gone. He was not a wicked boy. He was always very helpful. Anybody could call him to do something and he would do it.”

Education Ministers Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly and Lisa Morris-Julian used the ministry’s Facebook page to send their sympathy to the bereaved family.

“The former Form Three student of Ste Madeleine Secondary School met an untimely passing on October 8, 2022. The death of any young person is a loss to TT’s future. May Videsh’s soul rest in peace.”

The Homicide Bureau Region II is continuing investigations.

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A total of eighty four responses were made from the 7th to the 10th of  October, which included 4 motor vehicular incidents, 2 physical assaults, 1 alleged shooting and 4 fires. Three of the fires were vehicular fires.

 On Sunday October 9, at approximately 1:25 a.m., emergency personnel at the Dennery and Micoud Fire Stations responded to a call in Dennery Village for an alleged shooting incident.

The emergency medical team found two wounded individuals on the scene in the presence of police officers.

An assessment revealed that one of the individuals, a female in her late teens sustained a wound to her leg and male in his early thirties sustained a wound to his arm. The individuals were transported to the St. Jude and OKEU hospitals respectively.

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 Officers at the Fire Service Headquarters responded to a motor vehicular collision which escalated to a vehicle fire on the John Compton Highway on Friday October 7 at approximately 6:40 p.m.

The crew was assisted by personnel from the Gros Islet Fire Station.

After the reported collision of two vehicles, four persons were treated on the scene and transported via ambulance to the OKEU Hospital, while the fire suppression team worked to extinguish fire in one of the vehicles involved.

The four persons were remained in a stable condition en route to the medical facility, and the fire was extinguished with no injury to persons or damage to any other property.

SOURCE: Saint Lucia Fire Service

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