No witness to triple murder

NO WITNESS has come forward over Monday’s killing of a family on the Solomon Hochoy Highway in Golconda, and police are calling on the public to help solve the crime.

Up to yesterday, police had no motive for the shooting deaths of Carmelita Garcia-Quintero, 62, also called Ingrid, her husband George Quintero, 53, and her daughter Marisol Quintero, 33. Police dismissed social-media allegations that a relative might be behind the killings.

A senior policeman said, “There is no evidence whatsoever to support it. The husband had been living in the south for almost 30 years, as far as we know. He was originally from the Sangre Grande area.”

A pedestrian walking on the shoulder of the southbound lane of the highway at about 6.30 am on Monday found the three bodies in the family’s red Nissan Frontier van. They had all been shot multiple times and police believe the trio were returning home.

Police said on Sunday night the three, who lived together at Block 5, Plum Street in Palmiste, had gone to watch a movie at Movie Towne at C3 Centre in Corinth, not far from where the bodies were found in the parked van. The van had bullet holes in the front and back windscreens.

Newsday revisited Palmiste yesterday but bereaved relatives declined to speak. Workmen were seen cleaning the yard. Neighbours said the victims were decent people and the way they died made it more difficult to accept. “This is just sad, and we are still in shock. They were innocent people,” said one.

Police said autopsies done yesterday at the Forensic Sciences Centre in St James confirmed the deaths were as a result of the gunshot wounds.

Police from Southern Division, among them Snr Supt Zamsheed Mohammed, ASP Shereen Theodore-Persad and Cpls Narine Bisnath and Barry Bacchus, visited the scene and searched for evidence, along with police from Homicide Bureau Region III, among them Supt Winchester, ASP Persad and Insps Corrie and Figaro. Insp Figaro is leading investigations.