After much anxiety, family members of driver Vivakanand Nandalall are now convinced that the skeletal remains found in the Bachelor’s Adventure cane field three months ago belonged to the taxi driver.
This was confirmed by the results of a DNA test, which were handed over to the family yesterday, by the director of the Multi-Tech Reference Laboratory, Errol Bassoo.
The tests were conducted in Canada and it linked the DNA of the skeletal remains to that of Nandalall’s father.
The burnt skeletal remains were found March 12, five months after Nandalall was reportedly kidnapped.
Following several appeals, including one to President Bharrat Jagdeo, the state undertook to finance the test, which according to reports amounted to thousands of US dollars. According to the Bassoo, the director of the local laboratory that facilitated the tests, the process was started two and a half months ago.
He explained that technicians first had to obtain samples from the skeleton, which was very easy.
“But to make a match we had to try and obtain samples from clothing and other things that were used by the person. This was difficult, since most of the clothing were not suitable for such a test, so we had to take a DNA of the father,” Bassoo told Kaieteur News.
He said that the test is 99 percent accurate.
“I felt good that our lab contributed to the closure of this case, but it was hard to break it to the family,” Bassoo stated. The dead taxi driver’s mother, Priya, still had not come to grips with the results of the test, although it has closed the final chapter of ascertaining the fate of the missing taxi driver.
“I still can’t catch myself. The long wait took a toll on me.” Mrs. Nandalall said that she was in Georgetown when she received a call from the laboratory.
“Mr. Bassoo told us to come, that he had some good news for us. When he gave us the news, both me and my husband began to cry. We did not expect this,” she said.
Nandalall’s father, who was in the forefront in the search for his son, told this newspaper that it is hard to describe his feelings at this moment. “I was hoping that it (the skeleton) was not his. But it happened like this,” the man said.
He said the family is now awaiting word from the police to enable them to formally bury the remains of his son. The remains are reportedly being kept at the Georgetown Public Hospital Mortuary.