2 unidentified bodies found in Tobago

Police suspect a drug link in the discovery of a badly decomposed body believed to be that of a woman in the secluded Back Bay area at Mt Irvine, Tobago, on Monday afternoon. Old Grange Police were alerted by a telephone call at 4.35 pm. The body, which was in a very advanced state of decomposition, was found in some bushes at the side of the roadway in the largely unfrequented, desolate area — far from the beach, ruling out the possibility that it might have been washed ashore.

“That certainly could not have washed up there,” a senior investigator told Newsday. There was a bracelet around a hand and some 15 vials between the legs of the almost skeletal corpse. There were also other “suspicious” items in the immediate vicinity of the corpse. Lawmen suspect it may be a case of something going terribly wrong in terms of the insertion or swallowing of drugs by a “drug mule” who apparently died or was left to die after possibly falling ill. Due to the state of decomposition, it also could not be immediately determined whether the body is that of a person of African or Caucasian descent. Detective Cpl Oliver Clarke, of the Old Grange Police, is continuing investigations. Meantime, investigators do not believe there is a link between the discovery of this body and that of an unidentified man which was discovered along the rocky, northern coastline at Buccoo last Saturday.

Up to Monday, the body believed to be that of a man of African descent remained at the Scarborough mortuary awaiting positive identification, after which an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death. Police were working on the theory that it might have been that of a man from Sangre Grande identified only as “Killer” who had been living at Bon Accord and is among three men who are missing after going on a fishing expedition out of Swallows Bay, Pigeon Point, on June 26. However, police sources reported that fingerprints lifted off the body do not match those of the missing fisherman. The body, which was clad in a white boxer-type shorts and wedged among the rocks at the bottom of a 40-foot precipice at the end of Battery Street, was discovered by a terrified villager who had been picking “pacro.” Police were up to yesterday seeking to identify both bodies.