Relatives of Curt Burke maintain he was murdered

Family members and relatives of the late Curt Burke whose dismembered body was found one week ago in bushes near the Yorkshire village, East Coast Demerara (ECD) are still of the view that he did not meet his demise as a result of a “hit and run accident” as had previously stated by the police.

They strongly believe that Burke was a victim of a homicide and from the inception rejected the theory of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) that the 40-year-old man was killed after a vehicle hit him down on the public roadway.

The dead man’s cousin, Rickford Burke, who is the President of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) recently declared in a letter to the media that the earlier statement by the GPF about his cousin’s death was ‘speculative and inaccurate, and evinces a reckless rush to judgment.’

Rickford stated that the police statement had been inaccurate since the late Burke’s body was not discovered on the “main road” but in fact was discovered in a bush, a distance from the “main road.” 

“Clearly, the GPF first speculated on the place and theory of this crime, before completing an investigation into the facts and circumstances. This is repugnant to the professional standards of law enforcement investigations. Moreover, our family has been informed that two unknown men who allegedly presented themselves at the Mahaicony Police Station to retrieve a mobile telephone that was allegedly recovered at the crime scene and which did not belong to my cousin, were turned away without being detained or questioned,” his letter went on to say. 

According to Rickford, if this is true, then potential material evidence was “deliberately or recklessly disregarded.”

As such, he has communicated this as well as other information regarding a recent death threat against Burke from a family in the Mahaicony area, to Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud as well as Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, on this matter.

“I wish to state categorically that the Burke family completely rejects the theory of a hit and run accident.  This is hogwash! We believe that prima facie evidence at the crime scene points to a homicide,” Rickford posited.