‘Contrack’ on murder charge

Residents of the northwestern village of Troumaca are still reeling with shock after the partially decomposed body of an elderly villager, Thomas Cyrus, was discovered last week Thursday evening.{{more}}

A mini bus operator who plies the North Leeward route told SEARCHLIGHT that Cyrus was a passenger in his bus that left Kingstown at around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, September 30 for Troumaca. According to the bus driver, Cyrus was supposed to return to Kingstown where he was staying with his son the following Tuesday. “That’s the last time I saw him,” the driver said.

After Cyrus was not seen later on Saturday, Troumaca residents and villagers from nearby Coulls Hill raised the alarm and began searching for him.

Thomas’s partially decomposed body was found five days later covered with sand and debris in a gully at Dennis Corner just outside the village on Thursday, October 4 at around 11:30 p.m. He was found by his nephew Hugh Wyllie, Wyllie’s wife Venus, and their children Chiji and Sherry who had gone looking for Cyrus after a relative called from Canada asking them to keep looking.

It was Mrs. Wyllie who first saw Cyrus’s foot sticking out of the ground where he was buried.

Cyrus had been doing some small scale farming for years on the land where his body was found.

An autopsy conducted on Tuesday determined that Cyrus died from a chop wound to his head. Oswald “Contrack” Roberts, a 45-year-old labourer of Troumaca has been charged in connection with Cyrus’ death.