Heartless: Murder in Trinidad

In an incident which some officers of the Northern Division have described as “barbaric”, a 25-year-old man was severely beaten about his body, dragged along the road into a forested area, stripped of all his clothing, and shot several times before his body was thrown onto the banks of a shallow river.

At about 1 a.m. yesterday, officers of Arouca Police Station received a report that a group of men had been seen dragging a man along Jitman Drive, Five Rivers, Arouca.

The victim, police were told, was bleeding from several injuries and was screaming in pain.

A party of officers from the Arouca station and the Northern Division Task Force responded and when the officers arrived they observed blood stains on the roadway.

The trail, police said, led them into a bushy area along upper Jitman Drive.

However, as the lawmen were searching the area, they heard several loud explosions and estimated that six shots had been fired.

The officers continued their search and eventually came across the nude body of a man along the bank of a river that ran through the area.

The lawmen notified their seniors, as well as officials from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations, and a party of officers, including ASP Mark, Inspector Maharaj and PC Ramjohn, visited the scene.

Isaiah Jakie

Some spent shells were also recovered by crime scene investigators.

A district medical officer visited the area and made his pronouncements before ordering the body’s removal to the Forensic Science Centre in St James for an autopsy.

The deceased was later identified as Isaiah Jakie, of Sunset Drive, Arouca.

He was known to the police in relation to prior matters, including narcotic possession.

Investigators are unclear if this had a role in his killing as they had no official motive.

At the Science Centre yesterday, Jakie’s relatives declined to speak to the media, saying they were still in a state of shock and “going through a difficult time”.

This killing pushed the murder toll for the year to date to 107.

The figure at the same time last year was 124.