Relatives of murdered Let-hem businessman Mohamed Khan are finally coming to terms with the fact that a body found in a Brazilian village in July is that of their loved one, following DNA analysis of his remains.

“At least it is now telling on us... now we know for sure that he is dead,” said widow Linda.

Khan, president of the Rupununi Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (RCCI) and owner of the Savannah Inn hotel in Lethem disappeared some time around June 22 while on his way to Manaus after being pulled off a bus by policemen.

Linda said she expected to travel to Brazil next week in order to collect her husband’s remains now stored in the mortuary in Boa Vista.

She will return with the body on September 27 for a funeral service the next day at the Rupununi Rodeo site at 10:00 am.

She was not sure what assistance the Brazilian authorities would be providing with respect to the return of the body, but she was prepared to do whatever was possible to give her husband a fitting farewell.

According to the grieving widow, the positive identification of her husband’s remains was facilitated by analysis of blood samples taken from her, and the couple’s daughter and son.

The widow, who was on Tuesday evening, elected Vice President of the RCCI, is urging that the Brazilian authorities formally charge the four men detained in connection with her husband’s abduction and slaying.

“The judge will have to make a decision now on the case... since they were awaiting the outcome of the tests.”

The four men in custody were said to have co-operated in the investigation leading to the discovery of Khan’s remains in the Brazilian village of Sao Silvestre some 80-km south west of Boa Vista. Skeletal remains along with several personal effects were found two weeks later by the police.