Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

One day af­ter he was re­port­ed miss­ing, the body of 46-year-old PH taxi dri­ver Naradh Ra­goo­nanan was found near Dum­fries Road, off the SS Erin Road in Debe.

Ra­goo­nanan, who plied the San Fer­nan­do to Pe­nal route, left his La Ro­main home around 9 am on Thurs­day. He last con­tact­ed his daugh­ter around 6.30 pm, telling her he was at the Pe­nal Taxi Stand and would be home short­ly. He asked her to be ready to open the front gate.

When he failed to re­turn home and calls to his cell­phone went unan­swered, his wor­ried rel­a­tives con­tact­ed the po­lice.

CCTV footage lat­er showed his dark blue Nis­san Almera near a school in Debe around 6.40 p.m.

Hunters Search and Res­cue Team leader Val­lence Ramb­harat said they were con­tact­ed by Ra­goo­nanan’s rel­a­tives around 1 am. They told them he had pur­chased the ve­hi­cle re­cent­ly, and they need­ed their help to find him. Ramb­harat said they spot­ted the body around 2 pm from a ve­hi­cle just min­utes af­ter they be­gan search­ing.

It was found 20 feet off the SS Erin Road op­po­site a drain. The wrists were bound with black rope and there were five gun­shot wounds to the chest and ab­domen.

“What we de­cid­ed to do is be­gin to search the area, and maybe five, ten, or 15 min­utes in­to the search, just dri­ving, we were able to spot the body from a mov­ing ve­hi­cle in the Debe area,” Ramb­harat said.

He said they im­me­di­ate­ly con­tact­ed the po­lice and his fam­i­ly.

Rel­a­tives were seen con­sol­ing each oth­er at the scene as the body was re­moved.

The ve­hi­cle was found yes­ter­day on Aster Street in Union Hall.

Of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions Re­gion 3 are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.

Any­one with in­for­ma­tion is asked to con­tact any po­lice sta­tion or 999, 555, 911, or 800-TIPS.