MISSING SCHOOLBOY MURDERED

Police said the killers used a cradle (a metal car part) and pig foot (a tool used in masonry or carpentry) to commit the gruesome crime. Police recovered both weapons yesterday behind the school compound which is surrounded by bushes.

Investigators further believe the Form Four student was killed elsewhere and his body dumped in the drain still clad in school uniform.

The body was lying face-up and his school bag nearby in the drain. The school is located at Raymond Jurawan Street off the Waterloo Main Road in Carapichaima.

On Monday at 8.45 pm, his mother Sharon Bickaroo reported him missing to the Freeport Police Station. Reports are that he left the school around midday that day and schoolmates last saw him alive standing at St Mary’s Junction at 2 pm.

Beephan lived at Heliconia Drive in Roystonia, Couva with his parents and younger sister.

Jesse’s father Shakar Beephan has a construction business.

Relatives made the discovery at about 11 am, 300 feet away from the school where classes were in session. A party of officers from the Freeport Police Station, Homicide Bureau (Region III) and the Anti Kidnapping Unit visited the scene. The officers included Cpls Smith, Williams and Gordon together with PCs Mohammed, Katray, Hall, Morgan and Boxill.

Although classes continued as normal while police processed the scene, staff members later addressed students telling of an “early dismissal at 1.30 pm” without offering any further explanation. No mention was made about the discovery but word spread among the students thanks to social media posts which they read on their cellular phones.

A student told Newsday that Beephan was not supposed to be in school on Monday because examinations were in progress for subjects he did not take as part of his study course.

The teen’s uncle, Sieuchan Beephan, 41, said the entire family was left in a state of shock and deep sorrow over Beephan’s death.

“Since Jesse went missing, the family never received any calls from him or anyone concerning his whereabouts. The parents are in a state right now,” Beephan said. Other relatives described Beephan as “a quiet boy.” Beephan is the second 16-year-old school pupil to be killed while in uniform this year.

On January 13, Rachael Ramkissoon of North Eastern College in Sangre Grande was found dead in bushes still clad in her school uniform. A hunter stumbled upon her body at Balata Trace in San Raphael. An autopsy revealed she was strangled.

Member of Parliament for Couva South Rudranath Indarsingh, in extending condolences to Beephan’s family, said blame for the pain, trauma and suffering they are feeling lies squarely on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.

In a press release, the Opposition MP accused Government of failing “to arrest the spiralling crime situation since attaining office in September, 2015.” He added that yet another young citizen’s life has been violently snuffed out and asked, “How many more of our young sons and daughters must die before this Government institutes joint police/army patrols in Couva and the rest of the country?”