Guyana Chronicle
May 7, 2001

POLICE were last night continuing intensive investigations into the killing of a father and his eight-year-old son and another man whose bodies were found at about mid-day yesterday in the East Coast Demerara backdam (backland).

Dead are fisherman, Beanchand Barran, 43, and his son Morvin, eight, of Enterprise Squatting Area and Danpaul `Pudra' Jagdeo, 22, a farmer of Non Pariel, East Coast Demerara.

All three appeared to have been shot, Police said.

The three bodies were found with apparent gunshot wounds in the head.

The body of Jagdeo was found at Annandale about a mile from the spot at Vigilance where the father and son were killed.

Residents at the scene felt Jagdeo might have been in the area and heard the gunshots that killed the father and son.

Upon checking, he probably saw what had happened and was also shot dead while trying to escape the killer(s), they speculated.

Jagdeo was found lying on his back, his bicycle nearby.

He had on a pair of long boots and the cutlass he used in his farming was strapped to the frame of his bicycle.

Relatives said he had gone into the backdam to check on the canefields of the man he worked for.

The bodies of Barran and his son were found near the bicycle they had used to ride into the backdam.

The killings took place on the mud dam amid the canefields stretching aback several villages on the East Coast and stunned residents who flocked in droves to the area as news of the murders spread.

Police took a tracker dog to try to pick up traces and clues at the scene.

The bodies of the father and son were found on the Vigilance Middle Walk backdam, about four miles south west of Enterprise.

They were discovered by Barran's 18-year-old son, Navendra Barran.

Navendra said his father usually went to the backdam to fish and would normally take Morvin along with him.

He said his father and his brother left home at about 03:00 hrs (a.m.) yesterday and were expected to return at about 07:00 hrs (a.m.).

After the family waited until 10:00 hrs and they had not returned, "Mummy send me to look for them and I looked for a long time until I see them dead", Navendra recalled.

He said the bodies were discovered about noon and "I went and tell my mother what happen to them and then I went and report to the Vigilance Police Station."

A bicycle, a bag of shrimps along with a cast net, a deep blue plastic bucket and other items were at the site where Barran and his son were found, their bicycle about 10 feet away.

Barran is survived by his wife and seven children.

Jagdeo's body was identified by his father-in-law Rahamit Ali at the Annandale backdam, about a mile away from where the others were found.

Jagdeo is survived by his wife Zamina Ali and his three-month-old daughter.

His father-in-law said that as the news spread that men had been found dead in the cane fields, he was curious to know who they were and like others went to the scene.

There he was shocked to discover that one of the dead men was his son-in-law.

A weeping and evidently shaken Kamta, Jagdeo's brother, who later arrived at the scene, said he had been watching the one-day cricket match between the West Indies and South Africa on television when his sister told him she heard their brother had been shot.

He said he last saw his brother about a week ago.

As the news about the dead men swept throughout the villages, a large and partly angry crowd gathered at the entrance of the dam leading to the cane fields waiting to see the bodies.

Some residents drove to the area in cars and a truck transported people to the scene.

Police removed the bodies from the scene late yesterday afternoon.