Retirees Bernard Mahabir and Kenneth Gill were friends who limed together for decades.
On Monday, they died together.
Police believe Mahabir, 71, and Gill, 67, went to lime and, on they way home, they were attacked by someone who saw them as easy targets for robbery.
Gill’s bank card was used at ATMs in Sangre Grande and Arima.
Police said on Monday at 9.40 a.m. the wives of both men filed missing persons reports at the Arouca Police Station, but around 3.15 p.m., their burnt bodies were found in the trunk of a car in Valencia.
Police were told by relatives of both men that on Sunday, Gill left his home and picked up Mahabir at his home at Pasea, Tunapuna, around 11 a.m.
They then went to a community centre in Lopinot, where Gill parked his white Nissan Tiida.
Both men were later picked up by Gill’s son who took them to a lime at La Pastora, Lopinot.
Around 5 p.m. that day, the two men were returned to the community centre. From the centre, Mahabir and Gill walked to a bar where they limed for about an hour.
Investigators yesterday speculated the two men became targets after Gill was observed spending money in the bar.
Around 6 p.m., they were observed in Gill’s car, leaving the Lopinot area; and according to relatives of Mahabir, this was the last time they were seen alive.
Police said on two occasions before the bodies were found, Gill’s bank card was used in Sangre Grande and $3,000 was withdrawn.
In Arima, the card was used again and $1,500 was withdrawn.
Police said after the missing person reports were filed, they launched an enquiry and contacted the Hunters Search and Rescue Team led by Shamshudeen Ayube.
Around 3.15 p.m. on Monday, police received information about the bodies of the men found in the trunk a burnt-out Nissan Tiida parked on Tapana Road, off the Valencia Old Road, Valencia.
Yesterday morning, their bodies were brought to the Forensic Science Centre, Federation Park, where their relatives identified them.
Nice neighbour
At the Forensic centre yesterday the relatives of both men were present. Gill’s relatives said they did not want to make any comments.
The Express also visited Gill’s home, but no one was there. One neighbour, however, described Gill as a “really, really nice neighbour”. He said Gill and his relatives had been living there for 30 years.
The Express also visited Mahabir’s relatives in Tunapuna. One of them said: “Both men grew up together on the same street in Pasea, Tunapuna.”
He recalled Mahabir worked in the Tunapuna Piarco Regional Corporation, but was also passionate about bee keeping and was an “excellent” tailor. He said Mahabir was a married father of two, and retired from the corporation about ten years ago. He said the men’s friendship was so strong that their children naturally saw the other man as an “uncle”.
The murder toll for the year so far stood at 117 up to last night, while the toll on this date last year was 126.
