HOMICIDE officers have discovered a new trend in killings where victims are targeted for their inheritance, not just from loved ones but from strangers with help from officials at financial institutions.
Speaking at an award ceremony at the Police Administration Building, Sackville Street, Port of Spain on Friday, Supt Rishi Singh assigned to the Homicide Bureau said his officers noticed instances of murder victims being killed for their inheritance and warned citizens to be vigilant.
At the award ceremony five officers were commended for their diligence in solving a murder case that took place in Tobago three years ago. In that killing the childhood friend of the Prime Minister, John Mills, 70, and his common-law wife Eulyn John, 61 were found dead by Mills's nephew on May 2, 2019, at their Cocrico Avenue, Buccoo home. The couple had been strangled one day after Mills celebrated his birthday.
Two men Nicholas Davis, 28, of Sou Sou Lands, Tobago and Antonio Riykja McEachnie, 30, of Laventille, are charged with murdering the couple.
At the ceremony Singh said “I feel compelled to address the nation of a particular observation that we are now seeing and to help persons with a strategy that will make them less vulnerable. In this particular matter, what we observed was that a financial asset based in a particular institution was accessed by fraudulent means and that asset would have now become payable to an individual who would not have necessarily been connected to a particular person.”
He added that, in solving the murder, it was uncovered that fraud was committed resulting in the Fraud Squad playing an integral part in solving the case along with members of the Cold Case Unit and Homicide.
Speaking with Newsday after the award ceremony, Singh said these motives are not initially identified and only through intense investigation are police able to connect those dots. He said there are other matters with a similar motive being investigated but he did not want to disclose much given that they were still under investigation.
“The motives reveal themselves later on. There are other cases involving enrichment where there is a change in beneficiaries, fraudulently so. When the person dies, the fraudulent benefactor reaps the reward.”
At the award ceremony, Singh said, "You may very well, in the near future, see more matters that might come to bare in such circumstances. But, like we said before, this matter, like so many others, we would not comment on issues of evidence because we have to be responsible as the matter is before the court.
"We have a responsibility to the court and to the citizens generally. So we just needed persons to hear that, so that there's another dimension of attentiveness that now you are required to pay to your own selves."
For their diligence in detecting and investigating the crimes leading to charges, Snr Supt Arlet Groom of the Fraud Squad, Insp Ashley Mongroo of the Legal Unit, Sgt Sheldon Narine of Cold Case Unit and Insp Lorine Joefield and Sgt Jo-Ann Quashie-George o
