Scavenger buried alive in garbage

A 24-YEAR-OLD scavenger suffocated to death after being buried by mounds of garbage at the Beetham Landfill at about 6 am yesterday. The dead man was identified only as Charles, of Pioneer Drive, Sea Lots. According to eyewitness reports, Charles was seen hopping a garbage truck into the Beetham dump at about 5 am yesterday. At about 6.30 am, a backhoe driver who was removing garbage to dump it at another part of the landfill, saw the body of a man under mounds of garbage. He raised an alarm and officers from the Besson Street Police Station were summoned to the scene. District Medical Officer Dr Bouchay ordered that the body be removed to the Forensic Science Centre.

The scavenger, said Charles, who was also known as “Strongy,” had been living on the outskirts of the dump under a tree after he moved out of Sea Lots where he had been staying for the past six months. Samuel Phillip, said he met Charles wandering the streets of Port-of-Spain and gave him a job. He said Charles told him he was from Santa Flora and had worked as a baker before he was fired. In desperation he made his way to Port-of-Spain where he got a job as a scavenger. Phillip told Sunday Newsday Charles had a drug problem but was a trustworthy person. He said he heard about the freak accident early yesterday and the news came as a big shock to him. Officers from the Besson Street Police Station told Sunday Newsday that they are working on a theory that Charles may have overdosed on drugs and passed out when the garbage was dumped on him. As a result, he suffocated and died.