Keron Hope of Middle Street, Buxton, East Coast Demerara (ECD) was today remanded to prison for the murder of 26-year-old Miriam Edwards, a mother of two.
Hope made his court appearance before Magistrate Crystal Lambert at the Bartica Magistrate’s Court where he was not required to plead to the indictable charge which stated between June 8 and 9, he murdered Edwards.
The accused was remanded to prison until June 30, 2022.
Edwards, who was employed as a cook, was murdered at Kumung Kumung Backdam, Puruni River, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).
The woman’s employer had stated that on the evening of June 8, after he and his crew had returned to camp, they realised that Edwards was missing and her quarters was ransacked.
Upon enquiring, they were told by a boat operator that he had dropped Hope to their camp during the day. As a result, the employer and several others confronted Hope and reported the matter to the police.
Upon arrival in the Backdam, Hope was handed over to the police and upon being questioned, took ranks to a short distance away from camp they found the partially nude body of Edwards.
She was clad in only a black bra and her neck bore hematoma-like marks. Both the body and the suspect were taken to Bartica. The suspect was placed in custody and during interrogation, he admitted to paying the woman to have sex with him on two previous occasions.
However, on June 8, he told detectives that they had sex for the third time after which, she reportedly told him that they would have to end the arrangement.
The suspect said upon hearing this, he became angry and choked Edwards until she became motionless after which, he dumped her body in the river.
He further stated that he returned to her camp and took 21 pennyweight of raw gold which was in her purse.
Meanwhile, an autopsy performed on the body of revealed that the woman died as a result of ‘manual strangulation compounded by blunt trauma to the head’. The post-mortem examination was conducted on Monday by Dr Nehaul Singh.
Edwards was a mother of two young girls.
