Doctor’s son laid to rest in Curepe

There were tears, wails, and cries of sorrow from family and friends who attended yesterday’s funeral service at Our Lady of Fatima RC Church in Curepe for slain teenager Mark Rattan. Monsignor Esau Joseph told parishioners, “In this season of happiness, it was a graphic reminder that we live with evil and wicked persons. This loss of a bright mind in a killing field shows that there is a breakdown in the value of family life,” he said. He noted that it was a loss to the family that he tried to follow in his father’s footsteps as a medical doctor. Sterling Pillai and Daniel Rochard, who were close friends of Rattan, delivered the eulogy. Pillai said Mark was a lover of animals who showed intelligence at an early age in life.

A group of Rattan’s friends, who call themselves “Splinter” from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, dedicated a special song to Mark. Easy Riders of Valsayn’s Motorcycle Club, and Prof Vijay Naraynsingh also attended the funeral service. Rattan’s body was cremated at the Belgroves Crematorium. Rattan, 18, a former student of Hillview College, was vacationing from St George’s University in Grenada where he was pursuing medicine. According to reports, Rattan was leaving the Royal Castle outlet at Curepe Junction at 9 pm on Monday, when he was grabbed by five persons, including two women, and bundled into his Toyota RAV 4.

It is reported that he put up a fight during which time he was beaten and stabbed several times. The body was later dumped in a drain 200 metres north of the Caura Hospital. At 11 pm, two men crashed the RAV 4 on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway near the Maloney Post Office.  The two men later confessed to the crime, and four persons are being held in custody pending instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions.