Trinidad: Autopsy exposes fatal beating of 77-year-old initially declared dead by ‘accidental fall’

Trinidad and Tobago: What the police initially dismissed as an accidental fall resulting in death has now been ruled a brutal killing, following an autopsy that confirmed 77-year-old Sam Seegulam, a Longdenville pensioner, was beaten to death.

According to police reports, Seegulam’s body was found inside a 12-by-10-foot storage room on the lower floor of his two-storey wooden and concrete home around 5:30 p.m. on October 10, after the relatives went to visit his home.

The 77-year-old had failed to make his usual morning visit to deliver newspapers, prompting his relatives to visit his home. Upon searching the premises, they reportedly found him unresponsive and lying on his back in the storage room, wearing only brown shorts, at his Edinburgh Road, Longdenville residence.

The relatives alerted the authorities, and following the police’s arrival on the scene, they uncovered Seegulam’s body still laying on his back and reported that they had found no marks of violence visible on his body.

This led them to believe that the 77-year-old pensioner might have fallen through a hole in the flooring of a bedroom that was directly above the storage room where he was found unconscious.

Seegulam’s body was then taken to the hospital where doctors pronounced him dead, and scheduled his autopsy for October 15, Wednesday.

After Seegulam's body was removed, his relatives reportedly informed authorities that there were clear signs inside the home indicating someone else had been present, but their concerns were initially dismissed by officers who labelled the pensioner's death as accidental.

Furthermore, several troubling discoveries were made by persons who were cleaning the premises days later as Seegulam’s house keys, car keys, and cellphone were reportedly missing from the premises and the door to his vehicle was reportedly found open.

The cleaners also discovered the 77-year-old's blood-stained t-shirt inside the house, believed to be the one he was wearing during the confrontation, as he was found bare-chested by his relatives, which further raised more alarms from the relatives on the cause of death.

Adding even more confirmation to the relatives suspicions, ahead of the scheduled autopsy, a pathologist at the Mt. Hope Mortuary examined Seegulam’s body and concluded that his injuries were not consistent with an accidental fall, as formerly presumed by the authorities.

This led to the case being referred to the Forensic Science Centre for a full forensic examination where the Centre later determined that the pensioner had died from polytrauma, blunt traumatic injuries, and shock and hemorrhage, resulting from being beaten to death.

It further led the authorities to launch an investigation into Seegulam's death, and upon processing of the scene, officers secured a licensed 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition that was  locked in a safe inside his bedroom reportedly belonging to Seegulam.

Furthermore, investigators have since learned that Seegulam’s cellphone had been pinged twice since his death, once in Morvant and again in San Juan, deepening suspicions on what really transpired.

The murder case has since been upgraded to a homicide case by the police as investigations are still continuing.