By Kenton X. Chance
Detectives investigating an alleged abduction in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are said to have unearthed evidence pointing to a particular suspect in at least two murders, one of which was reportedly committed in the United States.
Well-placed sources have told iWitness News that police have questioned several persons in connection with the crimes and are expected to lay charges against at least one person on Thursday.
The large-scale investigation was triggered by a report to police in Penniston last Friday, April 15, that a Vermont resident had found a note saying that a woman was being held captive on the ground floor of a house in Vermont.
The note was reportedly written by 24-year-old Mewanah Hadaway, whose family and residents of Vermont had last seen her on New Year’s Day.
Messages sent to Hadaway’s relatives and friends from her Whatapp account, said that she had gone to another Caribbean country, a development that they viewed with suspicion.
Persons were concerned about this in light of the fact that Hadaway’s mother, with whom she is close, is terminally ill.
Unconvinced, a resident of Vermont recently began making checks with airlines and immigration officials in SVG and the country that the Whatsapp messages had said Hadaway had gone to.
The airlines and immigration officials all said that they had not processed a passenger using Hadaway’s name or travel documents.
Then, a resident of Vermont who helped to care for an elderly woman who lived on the upper storey of the house in which Hadaway was reportedly kept, found a note in which the writer identified herself as Hadaway and said she was being held against her will on the ground floor of the house.
The writer of the note said they were being held captive by a male resident of Vermont, whom the writer also identified by name in the note.
The police were summoned and Hadaway was found in a section of the ground floor of the building that had been partitioned using wood and fitted with a door.
As the police began probing the abduction report, they are said to have uncovered evidence suggesting a link between a Vermont and a murder that was committed in St. Vincent last year.
Detective are also said to have also uncovered evidence suggesting a link between the man and an unsolved murder committed in the United States a few years ago.
Both of the victims in the murders are women.
Sources with knowledge of the investigation have told iWitness News that the probe is so extensive that it has drawn on resources from several investigating arms of the Police Force, including the Major Crime Unit, which specialises in investigating homicides and other similarly serious crimes.
Head of the Criminal Investigations Department, Superintendent of Police, Ruth Jacobs, confirmed to iWitness News on Thursday that police have someone in custody as part of their investigation of the allege abduction.
Jacobs did not identify the person, but said that no charges had been laid when iWitness News spoke with her around 8:30 a.m.
A well-placed source had told iWitness News on Tuesday that Veron Primus, a 29-year-old labourer of Vermont, had been assisting police with their investigation into the alleged abduction.
A source told iWitness News on Thursday that police had released Primus, but took him into custody again, but iWitness News was unable to verify whether he is a suspect in the case.
The source said that the investigation is at a sensitive stage and charges were expected to be laid against at least one person on Thursday.