Murder Number Five for Tobago

Curtis Jamess, Murdered on Saturday Night
Photo by Trinidadexpress

THERE have been three murders in Tobago in ten days.

The latest is 60-year-old father of two, Curtis James, who was found strangled on his bed at his home in Concordia on Saturday afternoon. Police officers said robbery appears to be the motive.

The murder toll in Tobago for the year to date now stands at five. The latest comes as a spate of robberies in the Concordia area turned fatal.

James, who was robbed recently at his home, was discovered dead shortly before 4 p.m. He was found lying motionless by his nine-year-old granddaughter. An alarm was raised and the police called.

One of James’s vans was found abandoned and burnt in the Orange Hill area, similar to that of murdered taxi-driver Dain Kent, whose van was found burnt in Mt Grace flats the week before. Son of the deceased, Dwight James, said his distraught mother told him of his father’s death.

“I was by my mother and she call me and was crying and I was like what is happening, what is happening and she did not tell me until I was in the village of Hope coming down, and she told me they find his car in the bush, and I was like where he is, and she tell me they kill him,” James said.

Less than a month ago, he said, his father’s home was robbed. Neighbours in the area also suffered at the hands of thieves, with several of their valuables stolen.

One relative, overcome with grief, had to be taken by ambulance to Scarborough General Hospital for treatment.

“They broke into his home already and maybe I guess they stole money and they broke into the neighbour’s house,” he said. Representative for the area, Sheldon Cunningham, was on hand to meet with those affected by the murder.

Cunningham promised support for the family and called on Tobagonians to be their brother’s keeper.

“This is now the third we have seen within few weeks apart or days apart and we have to be our brother’s keeper. We have to start looking out and trying to be there for one another, in times like this we have to understand that we are not alone. 

We need some form of maybe neighbourhood watch,” said Cunningham.

Pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov said yesterday James died after he was smothered with a pillow. He also said the perpetrators made it look as if he had committed suicide.

The Homicide Bureau is spearheading investigations.

Source:trinidadexpress