Orange Walk merchant murdered

In these times of rampant senseless crime we tend to put murders in neat categories: jealous lovers, drunken brawls, robberies gone wrong and just plain gangbanging. But the brutal killing that took place sometime Friday in Orange Walk Town doesn’t seem to fit so neatly into our criminal stereotypes. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods reports.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

It was not unusual for thirty-nine year old Ghanshayan Alamchandani, to stay away from his novelty store in Orange Walk Town. So, when the Pakistani business man and money changer was absent all day on Friday, his assistant did not become suspicious, but when he failed to show up on Saturday, she became alarmed. Concerned that Alamchandani was ill and probably unable to move from his apartment at the corner of Lovers Lane and Cemetery Lane, the landlord was contacted. He used the duplicate key to gain access into the small room, but according to the officer in charge of the Orange Walk Police Station, Superintendent Mario Vernon, nothing could have prepared them for the bloody mess that they found inside.

Supt. Mario Vernon, O.C. Orange Walk Police Station

?He was there stretched out on his bed, on his back. There was a pillow over his face and a sheet sort of around his neck, but there was also the area across the right side of the head that was bloody. So we thought, initially, at first that maybe he may have been strangled, but certainly hit or stabbed at the side of the head because we saw the blood there.?

Alamchandani had been stabbed numerous times in the head. There was blood on the wall, mattress, pillow and the floor. The police say because of the severity of the killing, authorities suspect it was a crime of passion, and believed that Alamchandani was murdered by someone he knew. The deceased was found wearing only his underwear; but two food containers and a bottle of beer found on the floor near the bed suggest he had company just before he was butchered to death.

Supt. Mario Vernon

?The post mortem reveals that he got ten stabs to the head; two which would have been the fatal wounds on either side of the head near the temple; those were penetrating.?

?It turned out and from the post mortem report it turned out that he was not strangled and it was the wound to the head that actually killed him. But the man was a frail man; very docile man. I don?t think there was a need to do that many stabbings to the head to finish a man off like that. And it is telling me that yes it was someone who he knew and the motive is not yet clear.?

Police say they have not yet recovered the murder weapon but because of the type of injuries the deceased received, authorities say they have a good idea of what was used.

Supt Mario Vernon

?We are looking at a blade but a heavy blade, heavy type of blade perhaps the commando type knife or a machete. But it?s that type of heavy blade we are looking for.?

Jacqueline Woods

?Alamchandani was last seen around eight thirty on Thursday night when he retired to his one room apartment. Although no one is reported to have been seen visiting later that night, police strongly suspect that someone the deceased intimately knew went to see him.?

Because they found no signs of forced entry police believe Alamchandani, who lived alone, opened the door and let his guest inside.

Supt Mario Vernon

?We have information that he is the type of guy that would not allow anyone into his room. I mean people have tried to visit him already like that, but he has never allowed anyone unless it would be someone he is expecting. ?

Orange Walk Police say they have identified a suspect and are presently looking for him. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.

A family source tells News 5 that robbery may have been the motive in the murder as Alamchandani was believed to have been carrying between twenty and thirty thousand dollars at the time of his death.