Teen found chopped to death under house

THE murder of a 16-year-old boy, whose bloodstained body was found yesterday, with multiple chop wounds, under a house near his home has sent shockwaves throughout the Princes Town community. The killing has left police and relatives puzzled. Police sources said they are working on reports that an argument over a gold chain may have led to the hacking death of Gerry Rooplal. The teen’s body was dumped under a house occupied by an elderly man, near to the victim’s home. However, Rooplal’s weeping mother Indra believes he may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The area where the body was found, police said, was frequented by drug addicts. “He may have seen something he was not meant to see. They used to call him “Guy Smiley” because he was so pleasant.

I just don’t know why this happened,” Indra sobbed as she stood and watched undertakers remove her son’s body. Rooplal was found in a pool of blood under a house at the back of his home at King Street, Princes Town with chop wounds to his head and back. Police believe the teenager fought with his killer/s since his left thumb was severed. Bloody fingerprints were also found on a galvanised water tank. The boy’s body was found at around 7 am yesterday by villager O’Neil West about 40 feet from the road.  Another villager, Anthony Francis, told Newsday, “I was on my way to work when someone told me Gerry under a house bleeding and not moving. I went up and realised he was looking stiff and dead.” Francis said he went to the boy’s family and broke the news to them. Describing the victim as “well known and well liked,” Francis said Rooplal was never a trouble-maker.

Grieving relatives said the boy left home shortly before 10 pm Thursday night, saying he was going to borrow a videotape. He never came back home. Relatives said earlier that day (Thursday) Rooplal went fishing at a pond in Usine Ste Madeleine. “Gerry caught seven coscarob fish. He was really happy and afterwards we went home and cook,” Rooplal’s brother-in-law Roger, said. Rooplal’s mother said when she came home from work around 11 pm she did not find it strange that her son was absent since he frequently limed until late, but would always return home to sleep. “When I got up this morning and did not see him, I started to get worried. I say I have to go and look for him. “But then somebody bring the news that they found his body,” Indra said.

Rooplal, a former student of Pleasantville Junior Secondary School, dropped out of school last year and started working as a part-time welder and straightener with his father, to support the family. He also did odd jobs in the village, relatives said. Visiting the scene yesterday were Snr Supt Joseph Nathaniel, Insp Rodriguez, Cpl Hosein and PCs Dhilpaul and Ragoo. The body was viewed by the District Medical Officer and removed to the Forensic Sciences Centre in St James, where efforts were being made for an autopsy to ascertain cause of death. Up to late yesterday, the murder weapon had not been found. Investigations are continuing.