Story by SHASTRI BOODAN
The body of murdered businessman, Koongebeharry Jaisarie, arrived in Port of Spain, Trinidad, from the sister isle via the fast ferry around 11.30 am on Thursday.
According to relatives of the deceased, the body was transported in a police-escorted hearse. The body was taken to the Forensic Sciences Centre at St James, where it would be identified on Friday before an autopsy is conducted.
Police exhumed Koongebeharry's body on Wednesday from a grave that was covered with a concrete slab behind an abandoned church at Lowlands, Tobago.
64-year-old Koongebeharry had gone to Tobago on June 4, to undertake business at the E-Zee Breezy Hotel. He was a co-owner of the hotel and made the trip on a Caribbean Airlines flight to pay workers and supervise renovations. He was scheduled to return later that same day. When he failed to show, his daughter—32-year-old Sparkles Jaisarie—alerted relatives, who conducted a search. A police report was made by his ex-wife, Tobagonian Carol John, who also travelled with the body on Thursday.
48-year-old Bobby Jaisarie, the brother of the deceased Koogenebeharry, told Guardian Media on Thursday that police informed Koongebeharry's wife Radica Debideen that she and one relative would be required to be at the Forensics Science Centre on Friday. Bobby said his elder brother, 58-year-old Takechan Jaisarie, would be accompanying Debideen.
Following the disappearance of Koongebeharry, Bobby and Takechan reportedly visited E-Zee Breezy on the weekend of June 13 to conduct their own inquiries. Bobby said he was mortified to learn that he walked on the spot where his brother was buried since the church is located next to the hotel. Bobby said while they were walking on the churchyard Takechan got a worried feeling as he observed a pile of dirt behind the church had been levelled recently. Bobby said that pile of dirt had been the same way for years.
"It seemed odd at the time, but I am now horrified to learn that my brother was buried under that same spot we walked on,” he told Guardian Media. “This reminds me of the murders committed by Abdul Malick where he buried people in garden in the 1970s, and afterwards, Malick planted a garden over the graves. This has me mortified."
Bobby said the concrete slab that was poured over the grave, gives the impression that his brother was dealing with members of the criminal underworld and mafia style individuals.
"My brother was a Coast Guard officer and a light aircraft pilot who worked hard for what he had,” Bobby Jaisarie stated. “While he was in the Coast Guard, he had his eyes set on a parcel of land in Chaguaramas, which he eventually acquired. After that, he backfilled the property over several years using debris from landslides and even rubble that was cleared from the streets of Port of Spain after the 1990 coup attempt. He eventually opened a parts place, mini-mart and had a few rental apartments. He was a hard-working individual."
Koongebeharry's love affair with Tobago led him to the arms of Carol John, whom he married in March 1983. The couple had three daughters and two sons before they divorced. The two boys died when they were infants. Koongebeharry also had a daughter with a Trinidadian woman in the 1990s.
Bobby said the family is demanding swift justice.
Speaking with Guardian Media via phone from the United States, Sparkles Jaisarie said she wants to come to T&T to assist in catching her father's killers.
Sparkles said her attorney filed an application with the T&T High Commission in the United States requesting permission to enter the country. She said this was done on June 14 and no response from the High Commission has yet been received.
She said she wants to have a meeting with National Security Minister Stewart Young, to ensure that the matter was not swept under the carpet.
Sparkles Jaisarie said the concrete slab over her father's body was the shock of the century for her.
"They should dig up the entire compound," she said.
