Neighbours want dead body removed

He lived alone and appears to have died alone. This sad fact was discovered by neighbours this morning, and although they called the police, and one relative stopped by, the already decaying body was still there several hours later. So neighbours called the media to try and get some action. News 5 visited the scene on Banak Street.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

This morning, residents living at the corner of Curassow and Banak streets were overcome by a strong odour coming from a small wooden shack at the end of the street. To their horror, they found the dead body of Anthony Almendarez. Almendarez, believed to be in his sixties, was a disabled mental patient who lived by himself.

Dawn Reynolds, Area Resident

“After a period of time he got to be a problem to the neighbourhood. He had a mental problem and he would go and cuss out the neighbourhood, goh dah different houses. And people nevah mi the pay him much attention, so I think he needed help and people nevah mi really…and then his family noh live no way round the neighbourhood, soh we noh know who is the immediate family for ah. People weh older weh dah older neighbourhood residents know who dah his relative, but a young man come and seh he dah his family, but he come and he just come and seh he the try get to the rest of the family to say that he dead and the situation. The policeman come, the doctor come and said he dead by natural cause, so they wah lef ah deh until the family come move him.”

But late this afternoon, several hours after the body was discovered, no one had removed the corpse from the area.

Dawn Reynolds

“They want it to be removed now because a lot babies deh round the areas, young children deh round the area and it smells, so we need it to be removed by the end of the day.”

According to Doctor Mario Estradabran, police took him to the scene where he examined the remains around one p.m. He believes Almendarez died from medical problems, possibly as long ago as Monday. When we spoke to Estradabran, he was waiting for the police to bring a death certificate for him to sign. He says that once foul play is ruled out, the deceased’s family is responsible for removing and burying the body.

Up to news time we had not been informed whether family members had removed the body.