LEFT: The car found with a body in its trunk is lifted from the Sea Breeze Canal. RIGHT: A distraught relative at the scene of Saturday’s discovery.
By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
THE MAN whose body was discovered in the trunk of a vehicle submerged in the Sea Breeze Canal on Saturday was likely murdered before being placed in the car, police said yesterday.
Chief Superintendent Paul Rolle, officer-in-charge of the Central Detective Unit, said preliminary investigations by police showed that the deceased “appeared to be shot, thrown in the trunk of the car, and thrown overboard”.
This killing pushed the country’s murder count to 125 for the year, just two shy of the record setting 127 homicides recorded in 2011 when the Ingraham administration was in office.
Chief Supt Rolle did not confirm whether the victim is 22-year-old Kiondre Hanna, who police said was reported missing by family on October 13. Emotional relatives of the missing man were at the crime scene on Saturday as police processed the area.
Chief Supt Rolle said police were awaiting the results of an autopsy and a DNA test before an official identification is released.
However, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF), in a statement over the weekend, said that the car belonged to a person who was reported missing.
According to a statement from the RBDF, last Tuesday marines from the RBDF’s Commando Squadron came across a car bumper, with its license plate attached, in the Sea Breeze area. Upon further investigation, it was confirmed that the bumper “came from a car that belonged to a person who was previously reported missing.” As a result, military divers from the Commando Squadron were immediately called in to conduct a search of the canal, which did not immediately reveal anything.
On Saturday, a collaborative search effort involving RBDF marines and divers, volunteers and family members of the missing person was conducted of the Sea Breeze and South Beach canals.
The RBDF military divers, conducting a search of the immediate area, found a submerged vehicle “fitting the description of the missing person’s car.”
“In searching the fully submerged vehicle, military divers discovered the body of a male inside,” the RBDF’s statement said. “Police were then notified, who arrived on the scene and commenced their investigations.”
When contacted yesterday for an update on the investigation, Chief Supt Rolle said: “The man appeared to be shot, thrown in the trunk of the car, and thrown overboard.”
He would not provide any other details.
“There’s nothing new other than what we reported (earlier),” he told The Tribune. “No identification because we have to do DNA, get samples from folks who are claiming that is their loved one.
“I couldn’t say that (who the deceased is) until we get definite identification. We have to do identification and then hopefully within a couple of weeks we’ll be able to positively identify him.”
Hanna’s relatives were emotional at the crime scene on Saturday, claiming police did not do enough to find him earlier.
“My grandson was missing three weeks today, 21 days, and I never had closure,” Hanna’s grandmother Karen Munnings said at the scene, surrounded by other family members.
“Nobody said nothing, nobody came around . . .”
Ms Munnings claimed it was a relative who first found her grandson’s car bumper last Tuesday and reported the information to police.
Saturday’s discovery came just days after 45-year-old Linden Taylor was shot multiple times before later dying on the sidewalk of Tonique Williams Darling Highway on October 28, after he and his brother were held up by several gunmen near the former’s home in Yellow Elder Gardens.
That incident happened just hours after a man was killed at Augusta Street off Poinciana Drive at 2.30 that morning.
Comments
ohdrap4 8 years, 5 months ago
125? 125? 125?
HarryWyckoff 8 years, 5 months ago
Naah, and just like all the hundreds of attempted murders we've had this year due to this incompetent government destroying the economy, this one will be put down to " someone looking in their trunk for a snickers bar, accidentally slipping, and falling in, at the exact moment a seagul landed on it, closing the trunk and locking him in. The bullet holes were incidental and wholly unrelated"
Birdie will come along soon and clarify that this is indeed the case.
paul_vincent_zecchino 8 years, 5 months ago
Excelllent synopsis, sir. Thank you.
Clearly, this person was negligent in parking their vehicle so close to the canal, knowing full well the dangers seagulls present to people rummaging in car trunks - very dangerous, clearly.
A citation for Reckless Parking seems in order, doesn't it? Case closed.
Nothing to see here, people. Move along please*
ThisIsOurs 8 years, 5 months ago
How did they find the car? Too much tv...too many empty vessels
John 8 years, 5 months ago
People reported the car in the canal. Guess they was fishing or swimming and spotted it.
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 5 months ago
Any ankle bracelet ? Was he one of the eight bailed this year as mentioned by her ladyship AG AMG.
John 8 years, 5 months ago
As of October 31, the country tied or surpassed the murder record (127) set in 2011. Depending on the classification of the body found in bushes in Freeport. Two full months left in 2015 and with the country averaging 12.5 murders a month there could be 153 murders this year. Shocking thing is government has offered no statement on what they intend to do about increasing murder and increasing crime in general. Is capital punishment the only other alternative?
B_I_D___ 8 years, 5 months ago
They have the answer to crime!! It's all the FNM's fault!!
TruePeople 8 years, 5 months ago
They have an answer, but crime never was asking them no questions
birdiestrachan 8 years, 5 months ago
you all may play politics as much as you wish . But these are serious times. it is not a matter to take lightly. Who knows for whom the bell will toil next. The PLP was wrong to print what ever signs they did. But these are frightening times. The Devil and his demons have taken procession of many. FNM's PLP's and DNA's must all beware.
birdiestrachan 8 years, 5 months ago
You folks seem to rejoice when young men lose their lives as if it is way to get back at the PLP even some in the TV and Print Media. Those people did not deserve loosing their lives. and the death penalty will change nothing. If you all want to fight the PLP find some other means do not use the lives of people as a political foot ball. remember the PLP FNM or DNA do not have the answer. It all goes to the hearts and minds of people. and only God can make the change.
asiseeit 8 years, 5 months ago
Your PLP made this political, they used crime to their advantage in 2012 and told the nation they had the answer on day 1. We now know that was a LIE. So stop acting all holy when the mood suites you and your evil party. At least you tell the truth now and admit that your corrupt PLP do not have the answer and never did. The truth can not be hidden any longer.
birdiestrachan 8 years, 5 months ago
You will do well to remember that the FNM did the same thing in 2007. Do you remember what they had to say about Mother Pratt. It is gone beyond that now. So let him who is without sin cast the first stone. As far as evil goes. Evil start in the heart and violence is in the pen and speech.
themessenger 8 years, 5 months ago
@asiseeit, Never argue with an idiot, they'll drag you down to their level then beat you with experience!
TalRussell 8 years, 5 months ago
Comrades they only think he was killed before the car was "thrown" overboard. Maybe the murdered man pulled off an Houdini act. How in hell do you throw a 3000 lb car into a canal?
Regardless 8 years, 5 months ago
Mother Pratt was useless as the minister of national security. One of her first press releases was asking one of the most sought after drug lords by the United States if he was being looked after in Fox Hill. Apparently her administrative abilities are not much better with Urban Renewal.
ThisIsOurs 8 years, 5 months ago
Mother Pratt has a kind heart, but she was totally unsuited for the position, making her DPM was an insult to every Bahamian who expected a DPM would would be able to take over and manage a multimillion dollar economy at a moment's notice. Actually, it's much like the appointment of Perry Christie as PM today. An insult to us all.
birdiestrachan 8 years, 5 months ago
Yes Mother Pratt did visit the Prison, The press took her picture by a certain prisoner cell. the President of the USA visited a prison also. You all can call me what ever you all wish. but you can not say I have not written the TRUTH. and that is all I care about.
John 8 years, 5 months ago
The unusual thing about this matter is the killer(s) seem to have gone to great lengths to hide their deed and/or dispose of the body. Not like the drive by killings that have become some common, where persons are shot in their yard, the street, or cars and the body is left at the crime scene. Maybe the motive is different in this incident as most people believe the drive by shootings are mostly gang related or drug turf warfare. . @ Birdie: " You folks seem to rejoice when young men lose their lives as if it is way to get back at the PLP even some in the TV and Print Media . I don't think anyone is rejoicing over the massive carnage that is going on in this country today. In fact many may be in shock or disbelief about what is happening and the fact that the country, collectively, and not just the current government and the previous, seem helpless to stop the murders and bring some sense of normalcy back to the country. Many have had the experience of receiving a call that a friend, family member, co-worker or loved one has been shot and killed and have experience going to the scene and witnessing the chilling reality of death, by some some cold-blooded, heartless animal. They have endured the torture of sleepless nights and endless nightmares and had to fight back the desire to seek revenge of keep other family and friends from doing so. And to absorb the hundreds of rumors that abound after each killing and not only having to go on with life and accept the fact that that person is gone forever, but also live with the reality that someone else close to them could be killed (in fact families have lost two, three and four males in the matter of months. This is no rejoicing matter. These are perilous times and so is the need to hit home to those in charge to do something..do something now! The division in the country is giving power to the criminals.
paul_vincent_zecchino 8 years, 5 months ago
Intriguing observation, agree: this is not the typical drive-by killing.
The effort exerted to conceal the crime and dispose of the body suggests it's personal, and that the killer may be wracked with guilt?
Time will tell, won't it? A pleasure to read your comments.
BahamianAway 8 years, 5 months ago
The Bahamas is reaping exactly what it has sown over the years. It doesn't matter which political party is in power, for too long crime has been allowed to run rampant. It just now happens that now it is to far gone to be curbed.
It all started when they allowed the Privy Council to step in and eliminate capital punishment. Now people feel as though they can commit crimes and there is no real consequences to those actions. I would love to know what the Privy Council finds more heinous than murder.
Also when the amount of illegal activities such as gambling and high ranking officials taking bribes and embezzling continue to set precedent why would people feel as though they should respect any type of law. It's the little things that people were able to get away (such as driving lawless and reckless) that have now lead up to bigger things like murder.
Fact is The Bahamas is so far gone only drastic measures will even begin to redeem this country. And a good place to start is bringing back capital punishment and shutting down all the illegal gaming establishments.
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