Man found dead in Arima

RETIRED TT Coast Guard Petty Officer Dennis Cornelius Medford’s naked body was found yesterday morning in a bushy area at the Heights of Aripo in Arima. His hands and feet were bound with wire and his mouth gagged and tied with wire. The body also bore several stab wounds in what police are calling “murder with a message.” Medford’s clothes were found bundled a quarter mile away from his body, while the part time taxi-driver’s car has not yet been recovered. According to reports, workers of the Forestry Department stumbled on the clothes at around 6.30 am. The workers, who were entering Aripo Road on their way to work, made a search for the owner of the clothes.

About 35 minutes later, another group from the same department was clearing a clump of bush down a precipice in a forested area when the gruesome discovery was made. Police were contacted and they in turn contacted the DMO, who ordered the body removed to the Forensic Science Centre for an autopsy today. When Newsday visited Medford’s home at Ice Factory Road in Arima, his common-law wife Kizzy Medina was too traumatised to speak. But a close relative said that while coming from school at 2 pm, she saw Medford who said he was going to work. That was the last time he was seen alive.

Another family source said that when Medford, 46, bought the car to ply as a taxi, he said he would only work it between 2 pm and 7 pm because of fears of being robbed and killed. Investigations revealed that earlier that day, two men were walking along the street asking for the whereabouts of one of Medford’s siblings. The men were directed by a neighbour to the Sangre Grande/Arima taxi stand, where the former petty officer worked. Police sources said they were treating the murder as robbery related initially, but with the information of two men asking questions the day before, they are now looking a different angles. Medford, who has three children from a previous marriage, retired from the Coast Guard last September. Sgt Forde of the Arima police is investigating.