Relatives of Dale “Chappy” Mc Intyre, who was shot dead inside the Moruga Forest on Monday night, say there are too many holes in the story surrounding his death. It was only around 7 pm on Tuesday night that undertakers removed Mc Intyre’s body from the forest.
At her home yesterday, Mc Intyre’s sister, Jude Mc Intyre-Paul, said there were many questions yet to be answered but was confident her family would get the truth.
Police reported that Mc Intyre, 39, of Edward Trace, went to hunt with his friends — Ramesh Balkie and Glenroy Mollineau — on Sunday afternoon and on reaching the start of a trail the men went off in separate directions. Around 9 pm Monday, one of the hunters heard a loud explosion and hours later found Mc Intyre on the ground with a gunshot wound to his head.
On Tuesday morning, the men went back to the village and called the police. Princes Town and Barrackpore police, led by ASP Rohan Pardasie and Insp Joey Samaroo, journeyed approximately five miles into the densely forested area off Edward Trace, Basseterre.
After an hour’s walk, the officers found Mc Intyre on the ground, several hundred metres away from the camp. While police suspect he may have set off a trap gun, Mc Intyre-Paul said trap guns did not usually shoot people in their heads.
Besides that, she said trap guns in that region were usually set deeper in the forest in a place called “The Cocoa”. Based on a conversation they had with one of the hunters, she said Mc Intyre was found dead in a hammock with bullet wounds to his head and hand.
However, she believes he could have been accidentally shot by a hunter as the area is frequented by hunters from around the country during the hunting season. She said: “I believe it was accidental but it have real holes in the story. Up to now police have not spoken to us but we will find out what happened eventually.
“The basic theory we are working with and with how the hunters explained, when you have on headlights, it can be mistaken for an animal’s eye and maybe someone saw the light from a distance.
They all had on headlights because it was night and some headlights have different hues.
“One of the men he was hunting with told us that they caught a lappe and brought it back to the camp. He told them he saw a spot by a balata tree and he left them and went back there that night.
“They said after they heard the gunshot and he did not return, they called his phone but he left it at the camp. Out there your phone is a lifeline.”
She said usually when hunters saw an animal they made a sound to let others know that they were around.