A thirty-five year-old mason of Tuschen Housing Scheme, East Bank Essequibo was on Thursday further remanded to prison for the murder of a twenty-seven-year-old woman back in 2008.
Sylvester Vanderhyden made yet another court appearance in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan where he was not required to plea to the capital offence of murder.
However, he was sent back to prison until the matter is called again on November 1, 2018.
After being on the run for almost nine years before being charged with the woman’s murder Vanderhyden was caught and placed before the courts on May, 2017.
The charge stated that Vanderhyden on November 5, 2008, at Agricola East Bank Demerara, he murdered Melissa Payne.
According to reports, the 27-year-old woman was fatally shot after she attempted to put up a fight with gunmen who carried out a brazen attack on her and a male companion on the fateful day, as the couple were making their way to Georgetown.
The pair had encountered mechanical problems and had exited the canter truck in which they were traveling when they were accosted by several armed men who relieved them of a bag containing some $110,000 cash along with a quantity of jewelry.
It was during the woman’s reluctance to hand over her hand bag that she was shot by one of the perpetrators, the men thereafter made good their escape.
Payne’s companion, David Fraser reported flagging down a motorist who transported the bleeding woman to the hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
News of the woman’s death sent shock waves throughout the Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara, community of the deceased.
Fraser was hospitalized, shortly after the incident; he suffered a heart attack when the gruesome reality finally hit him.
A few days after the incident, several men were arrested and Jermine Savory of Agricola East Bank Demerara was charged with the murder of Payne after he allegedly cracked under pressure and admitted to his involvement in the crime. Savory however, denied ever firing the lethal shot at the woman.
