A man and his nephew have ap­peared in court, on sep­a­rate days, charged with the mur­der of Joanne Estick, whose head was sev­ered and found in a bag at the side of the road in Siparia.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, the TTPS said Michael Ed­wards, 44, of Corinth Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do, was charged with the of­fence when he ap­peared be­fore Mas­ter In­di­ra Chinebas, in the South Court A, on Wednes­day, April 2.

His co-ac­cused, and nephew, Ryan Ed­wards, al­so called Gangy, of Sen­non Vil­lage, Siparia, ap­peared be­fore Mas­ter Chinebas, the fol­low­ing day, Thurs­day, April 3 fac­ing the same charge.

The TTPS said the suf­fi­cient hear­ing date for both men has been set for Oc­to­ber 6.

Of­fi­cers on mo­bile pa­trol in the Siparia dis­trict on March 13 re­spond­ed to a re­port of a hu­man head be­ing dis­cov­ered in a bag in a drain at Sen­non Vil­lage.

Estick, 60, of Siparia, was last seen walk­ing along the road­way the day be­fore. One male sus­pect was ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with the mat­ter on March 25, while a sec­ond was de­tained on March 31.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions were spear­head­ed by Supt Steve Per­sad and su­per­vised by ASP Anil Ma­haraj, both of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions (HBI), Re­gion Three. Michael Ed­wards was charged on April 1, while Ryan Ed­wards was charged on April 3 by WPC Stacey Ann George, al­so of HBI Re­gion Three, fol­low­ing ad­vice from As­sis­tant Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Sab­ri­na Dougdeen-Jaglal on both mat­ters.

Po­lice said to date Estick’s body has not been found.