Detectives are investigating two murders after a man was beaten to death in New Providence and the charred remains of another person were found in Cat Island.
Police found the remains off a dirt road in Devils Point, Cat Island just before midnight on Thursday. According to Cat Island residents, the body was also chopped up.
Police went to the scene after receiving reports of a “strange odor” coming from the area.
Relatives of the missing man Fordace Moncur, who is from Knowles, Cat Island, think police discovered his remains.
“He was the only person reported missing from here within the past two weeks,” said Fordace’s cousin Philip Moncur. “It is believed to be him.”
Police, however, have not confirmed the identity or the gender of the person killed. Fordace was last seen at 9 a.m. on October 5.
“I was hoping that he was just in Nassau or someplace cooling out – it’s really shocking,” Philip told The Nassau Guardian via telephone from his home in Knowles, Cat Island.
Last week Philip said a relative told the family that the missing man left his home to go to a nearby laundromat. The relative said he later found Fordace’s car on a public dock in Smith’s Bay with his laundry inside, but there was no sign of the missing man.
Fordace owned a construction company in Cat Island, his cousin said.
The death has been classified as the country’s 93rd homicide, according to police.
Wulff Road murder
Residents of a Wulff Road community yesterday found a man dead, with blunt force trauma to the head, police said.
A man who lives in the area found the body of 55-year-old Gregory Sands in a fenced-in lot on Kenwood Street. The man told The Nassau Guardian that he came to the lot to check on his boat after it rained and found Sands’ body covered with a sheet. Only the victim’s hands and socked feet were visible.
It is suspected that the victim was hit in the face with a rock. A bloody rock, believed to be the murder weapon, was found next to the body, police said. They suspect the body was on the scene for “a day or so”.
Police had no motive for the killing yesterday.
“At this stage of the game we really don’t know what has happened or have an idea as regards to a suspect,” Rolle told reporters at the crime scene.
Sands’ relatives gathered on Kenwood Street and said they were in a state of disbelief over his killing. Acknowledging that Sands had a checkered past, they said he cleaned up his life several years ago and had a steady job with a car rental company.
“He wasn’t a bad person,” Sands’ brother Kevin Sands said.
“I have no idea… why someone would kill him like that because he never used to trouble nobody.”
His younger sister Lisa Sands said her brother would call her every night to say “I love you”. She said she hadn’t heard from him for two days and then got a call that he was found dead.
“I don’t see why someone would murder him. It’s sad,” she said, as she stood a few feet away from the crime scene, surrounded by relatives and curious neighbors.
“Everyone knows him and loves him in the area.”
She said her family used to live on the property where Gregory’s body was found but moved out of the area decades ago. Lisa added that Gregory would come to the area regularly to hang out.
Anyone with information on the murders is asked to contact police at the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991/0 or the Crime Stoppers hotline at 328-TIPS.
This killing is the 94th homicide for the year recorded by police.
By Taneka Thompson
Guardian Senior Reporter
