A female associate of funeral home owner, Ashton King, was last night in custody as police continued investigations into the murder of informant George Bacchus.
They are also investigating allegations that a prime suspect was promised payment to execute Bacchus.
This newspaper understands that King’s associate, who was accompanied by a prominent attorney, turned herself in to police yesterday.
Sources said that she has denied knowing the prime suspect or having any involvement with Bacchus’s murder.
Ashton King, along with Sean Hinds, has been charged with the murder of Bacchus’s younger brother, Shafeek, who was gunned down outside his home on January 5 last.
Investigation into George Bacchus’s murder took an unexpected turn on Wednesday after Delon Reynolds, a handyman, confessed to murdering the informant.
He subsequently led police to the murder weapon, which he had buried in sheep dung at the back of the Bacchus’s Princes Street, Lodge property.
Eyewitnesses said that while at the scene, the handyman claimed that he had killed Bacchus because Bacchus had threatened to kill him.
In a statement to the police, the handyman, who was a close associate of Bacchus, alleged that he was offered $200,000 to kill the informant.
Sources refuted a report in another section of the media, which said that the handyman alleged that he and Bacchus’s nephew had been paid $2M to kill Bacchus.
Kaieteur News understands that the handyman claimed that the person who made him the offer informed him that someone would furnish him with a firearm.
He alleged in his statement that a man, whom he did not know, gave him a firearm a few days later.
However, relatives of the now dead Bacchus said that the weapon dug up from the sheep pen was the weapon they had seen in George Bacchus’s possession.
The handyman, who lived on the property and slept in a hammock beneath the house, was one of several people taken into custody shortly after Bacchus was slain.
People in the Bacchus household said that the suspect moved in shortly after Shafeek was gunned down on January 5, last.
Bacchus’s nephew, his sister-in-law and at least two other people are also still in custody. In a statement yesterday, police indicated that charges were expected to be laid in the case “shortly”.
It said that detectives had questioned more than 50 people and detained 19 suspects during their investigations into Bacchus’s murder.
“Discreet enquiries unearthed several clues and evidence was carefully compiled. Several homes were also searched,” the statement said.
“This has led to the identification of several suspects and the recovery of a firearm which may have been used to commit the offence.”
According to the statement, scientific testing has been carried out on the firearm and on the suspects.
“Charges are to be laid shortly (and) police are also searching for a suspect who may assist them in their investigation,” the statement added.
Bacchus, who was gunned down last Thursday, was laid to rest yesterday.