Head of Argentine Forensic team assessing murder of Berbice boys

MORE than three months after the murder of teenage cousins– Joel and Isaiah Henry– along with Haresh Singh, Director of the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropology (EAAF), Dr. Luis Fondebrider, has come to Guyana to assess whether the EAAF can assist the police with their investigations. According to the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), this visit is being facilitated in accordance with the wishes of the affected families. Dr. Fondebrider arrived on Saturday and will be in Guyana until December 16. During this time, he is expected to meet with all the families, visit the crime scene, meet with the investigators and police personnel and brief appropriate government and diplomatic representatives.

“As a result of the visit, the EAAF will determine whether and to what degree they may be able to support the Guyana Police Force in its investigations. If that conclusion is positive, the modalities of how it may be implemented will be addressed,” the GHRA stated in a press release. The mutilated bodies of cousins, Joel and Isaiah Henry, were found in the Cotton Tree backdam in West Berbice on September 6, 2020. Their gruesome murders have since sparked public outrage. On September 9, three days after the Henry boys were found, Singh was found, in a bloodied state as well, in the Number Three Village backdam, hours after he left home on his motorcycle to transport water for his relatives who were working on their farm.

Local investigations into the murders of the three teenage boys have not been successful in bringing the perpetrator(s) to justice; a $3M reward was even offered to anyone who could provide information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators of the gruesome murders. Further assistance was also sought from the CARICOM Regional Security System (RSS). Though the RSS was satisfied with the work done by local authorities, the team recommended the local authorities do more work. Attorney-at-law, Nigel Hughes, who is representing the interests of the Henry families, recommended the Argentine team be part of the investigating team. In November, he indicated that the Argentine team is asking for $4M in professional fees, along with travel, food and boarding to visit and offer their specialised services. The team will include a forensic anthropologist from Argentina, and, from Spain, two forensic pathologists and a criminalist.

The GHRA also said that Dr. Fondebrider will meet with representatives of official and civic organizations engaged with the problem of violent deaths of women, since the EAAF will explore the possibility of capacity-building in investigations of femicide in the future. He will also give a public presentation on the work of the EAAF at the Brickdam Cathedral on Tuesday, from 17:30hrs. Dr. Fondebrider was one of the speakers at the Conference on Truth and Justice, In Search of Reconciliation in Suriname, held in Paramaribo in 1998 by the Justice & Peace Organisation and the Inter-American Institute for Human Rights. At the time, he was a staff member of the EAAF.