2nd autopsy confirms death by hanging

THE BONES missing from the body of of Gary Layne, the man found dead in the Arouca Police Station, were released to pathologist Dr Hubert Daisley on Monday.

After examining them, Daisley confirmed that Layne died by hanging.

But relatives are still dubious about his death, and will bury the 30-year-old Layne on Thursday with burning questions still on their mind.

“We’ve started to accept what happened, but we are still very sceptical,” said one relative of Layne’s. “I still believe there is foul play.”

Daisley, after requesting the remaining bones to fill in holes in a second autopsy, was granted access on Monday, and after examining them concluded that Layne died from asphyxiation by hanging.

An autopsy by pathologist Dr Somu Sekhar Gajula at the Forensic Science Centre (FSC) in St James last week reached the same conclusion.

Two Sundays ago, Layne went to the Arima police station to sign a record book after being previously arrested for being in possession of police-issue ammunition. But when he went to sign the book, he was detained for questioning on charges of conspiracy to murder the owner of a quarry.

He was taken to the Arouca Police Station and put in a holding room at the homicide bureau at the back of the police station.

He was later found hanging from a bar on one of the windows of the room.

Relatives were told he was taken to the Maloney Police Station to be part of an ID parade, but when the family went there, they were told there was no ID parade and no one under his name had been transferred there.

Relatives checked the La Horquetta Police Station as well, but he was not there either.

Family members later got a call from a police officer telling them to go to the Eric Williams Medical Science Complex, and when they went there, doctors told them he had died by suicide.

Relatives told Newsday on Monday that Daisley showed the a picture of the bones said to be Layne’s. He told relatives he got the bones and examined them under the supervision of officials at the FSC. When asked why they had kept the bones, doctors said they needed them as evidence, yet they released the bones to the family so they could be buried with the rest of his body.

A relative said at this point, although there are still many questions left unanswered, they simply want to lay him to rest.

“We are not even sure if it is his bones,” one relative said. “There were a lot of inconsistencies when it came to the police reports, and when we asked questions it seemed like they were upset because they had to answer.”

Layne will be laid to rest on Thursday after a service at Allen’s Funeral Home in Arima.