The body of 33-year-old labourer Terry Elias, popularly known as “Zulu,” of Chelsea Park, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara, was pulled from a river on Monday afternoon, days after he was reported missing when he failed to report for work.
In an interview on Tuesday, his aunt, Cynthy Hamilton, said Elias was last seen at around 12:30h on Saturday when he left her home after stopping by for her birthday.
“He came, bought me a juice, and he said he was going to drop back something for me, but he didn’t. On Sunday, we then observed that he was missing… I got a phone call from the person that he’s working with at the supermarket, at the SNS, and his boss said he didn’t report for work,” Hamilton explained.
She said it was unusual for Elias to be absent without notice, prompting relatives to begin making checks. A report was subsequently made to the police, but efforts to locate him proved unsuccessful.
Their search came to a grim end on Monday shortly after 13:00h when his body was discovered in a river near the Mahaica bridge.
“While they were searching, they saw his slippers by the bridge, and they decided to go and look, and then that’s where they found his body,” Hamilton stated.
She also noted peculiar circumstances surrounding the discovery, revealing that a bicycle believed to belong to Elias had been spotted in the area earlier but was not found at the location where his body was recovered. “Somebody had moved the bicycle from there,” she disclosed.
Up to Tuesday, the family remained uncertain about what had transpired. Hamilton said she could not confirm whether Elias had sustained any visible injuries or whether foul play was suspected. A post-mortem examination is expected to determine the cause of death.
Elias, who was unmarried with no children, had been living at his Chelsea Park residence with a roommate for approximately 10 years.
