Daniel Melbourne has been remanded to prison after he was charged with several offences in relation to the death of 50-year-old Reonol Williams.
Melbourne appeared before Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court where he was slapped with the charges.
Melbourne was charged with causing death by dangerous driving, failure to report an accident, failure to render assistance after an accident, failure to produce vehicle for examination, giving false information to the police, and attempting to obstruct the course of justice.
The matter was adjourned to July 22.
Williams was missing since May 23. He was struck down by a motorcar along the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) Public Road. The driver of the vehicle picked up the man under the pretext of taking him to a hospital but he was never seen or heard from since.
Family members had checked all the hospitals along the East Coast of Demerara and in Georgetown but the man was not found.
The owner of the vehicle was questioned and released by police but as public pressure mounted, ranks of the Major Crimes Unit picked up the case, and the car owner was rearrested on Tuesday.
It was the car owner who led detectives to the scene where the decomposed body of the man was found at Coldigen, ECD.
Under further questioning, the owner of the vehicle admitted to dumping the man’s body.
This was confirmed by Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum who noted that the suspect confessed that he was the driver of the motorcar at the time of the accident.
He reportedly admitted that after he struck down Williams, he placed the man in his vehicle and as he was driving, he observed him motionless.
Out of fear, he admitted that he stopped the car at a bridge in Coldigen, ECD and disposed of the body in the trench.
After doing, he told detectives that he went home and informed his mother that his vehicle was missing and that he had made a report to the police.
Further, he also admitted that the initial information he provided to the police about him being in the interior and that his nephew was driving the vehicle was false.
