Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

The search for a miss­ing co­conut ven­dor in Ica­cos Vil­lage, Ce­dros, yes­ter­day led to the dis­cov­ery of a de­cap­i­tat­ed, de­com­pos­ing body of a man.

Up to last evening, po­lice said the man’s iden­ti­ty had not been con­firmed. Hunters Search and Res­cue Team cap­tain Val­lence Ramb­harat said the grue­some dis­cov­ery was made around 2 pm while mem­bers were search­ing for 38-year-old In­dar Ram­per­sad, who had been miss­ing from the vil­lage for sev­en days.

Of­fi­cers of the Ce­dros Po­lice Sta­tion, along with the TTPS Air Sup­port Unit, as­sist­ed in the search.

The body was found in wet­lands more than a mile away from Ram­per­sad’s home. The head was found sep­a­rate from the body, which was clad in black long pants and was in an ad­vanced state of de­com­po­si­tion.

One of Ram­per­sad’s rel­a­tives told Guardian Me­dia that he was a hus­tler who had been stay­ing in an aban­doned house. He said vil­lagers, who usu­al­ly pur­chased co­conuts from him, raised con­cern when he was not seen, prompt­ing his sis­ter to file a miss­ing per­son’s re­port at the Ce­dros Po­lice Sta­tion on Mon­day. The rel­a­tive added that one of Ram­per­sad’s fin­gers had been sev­ered in a pre­vi­ous boat­ing ac­ci­dent, which may as­sist in iden­ti­fy­ing the body. Po­lice are await­ing an au­top­sy to de­ter­mine the cause of death.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.