PORT OF SPAIN – Fifty-seven-year-old Steve Gogan was already dead when he was beheaded, according to forensic pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov, who examined the body yesterday.
Gogan’s relatives were at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday morning, where they had gone to witness the post-mortem of the former racehorse jockey who, at the time of his death, lived in a shipping container opposite Santa Rosa Park, Arima.
On Sunday around 6:15 a.m., Gogan’s head was found by a passer-by on the southern side of the race track. The passer-by alerted police, and officers searched the area and found the body about 50 metres away from the head.
The body was examined at the scene and later moved to the Port of Spain Mortuary.
By Monday, Gogan’s relatives had been alerted about what happened and yesterday they went to the Forensic Science Centre.
Alexandrov, who spoke to reporters yesterday, said, “I think, in my professional opinion, he was involved in a confrontation with a person with a cutlass. There is a defence wound to one hand and then he realised it was becoming dangerous and probably tried to run away.”
He added “the assailant ran after him and inflicted about three or four very shallow chop wounds to his left upper back. Then somehow the victim stumbled and fell face-down, and the assailant chopped him to the back of his head 12 times with tremendous force.”
“Decapitation was post-mortem,” he said.
The area of Santa Rosa near the race track was the site of another decapitation in May 2013, when the head of a man was found near the Arima Race Club’s car park while the body was found at Spring Road Extension in Carapo. (Trinidad Express)
