Dead man may have been murdered

A 41-YEAR-OLD father of three, whose death was classified as “natural” a year ago, may very well have been  murdered. This according to police who say they are awaiting instructions from Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson, to have the man’s body exhumed, for further forensic testing to prove or disprove the murder theory. Investigators sent the file to the DPP two months ago after receiving information that Pooran Herve, who lived at San Pedro in Poole Village, Rio Claro, was involved in an altercation at a bar, which led to him being cuffed and then thrown to the tiled floor of the bar.

He never regained consciousness and died some four hours later, while awaiting medical attention at the Accident and Emergency Department of the Mayaro Hospital. Yesterday his wife, Lackani Herve, visited Newsday’s South Bureau complaining that her husband’s killer was still at large and the police were not doing anything about it. However, when Newsday contacted police yesterday, a senior officer said the District Medical Officer who attended to the body was not aware of the circumstances of the case and thus ruled that Herve’s death was natural. “The DMO said it was either a case of high blood pressure or that he fell...the person in question probably being drunk,” police sources said. Sources added that when investigators learnt that there was some kind of altercation prior to Herve’s death, they contacted the pathologist, who said he could not do anything about the finding now (since the body was already buried). The investigators then contacted the State Counsel and the file on the incident was sent to the DPP.

Investigators are now awaiting instructions from the DPP’s office. Another post mortem will be carried out, if the body is exhumed. Meanwhile, life for widow Lackani Herve has been very difficult since her husband’s death. The unemployed mother of three, said she now depends on Government’s public assistance of $428 to take care of herself and her last child. “My two daughters are not living with me, but my son just passed for St Stephen’s College and his school registration fee alone was $300. This month I could not even buy groceries,” the grieving woman said. “It is hard. It real hard. And my husband’s killer is still on the loose. I want somebody to do something now,” she pleaded.