KOURY'S BODY FOUND

Headless corpse in Central orange field

The headless body of kidnap victim Dr Eddie Koury, the nephew of Health Minister John Rahael, was found yesterday in an orange field off Todd's Road, Chaguanas

The identity of the body was confirmed to the Express by Koury's cousin, George Hadeed.

Around 4 p.m. yesterday, a Todd's Road resident noticed a stench coming from an orange field in the area. He told other residents and together they found the body.

The body bore several stab wounds and was clothed in a pair of black pants and blue shirt, reportedly the same items worn by Koury the day he was kidnapped.

Police were up to last night searching for the head and the body was taken to the mortuary at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

Koury, who was the managing director of Isko Enterprises Ltd, an import and distribution company in Macoya, was kidnapped from his office at 7.45 a.m. on Wednesday by a group of five men who had earlier carjacked a taxi-driver and used his car as their getaway vehicle.

The kidnappers had stormed the Macoya Industrial Estate based company, threatened one of the workers with a gun as they entered Koury's office.

There was a struggle and the 38-year-old businessman was stabbed several times about the body. He was then dragged out of the office and bundled him into the trunk of the taxi.

Shortly after 8 o'clock that morning the blood stained taxi with its bedraggled driver, Ramsaran Samlal, was found at Orange Grove Extension Road in Tacarigua.

Hours later, police held five suspects from Tobago at a house in D'Abadie and seized a gun but up to last night, no charges had been laid against them.

Police had expressed doubt that Koury would have survived the multiple stabbing.

Koury's family, including his sister-in-law Karen Koury and his cousin George Hadeed held a press conference around 4 p.m. on Wednesday and pleaded with the kidnappers to "please release our Eddie. We know that he is hurt and we know that he is bleeding".

Police continued their search for Koury on Thursday using a National Security helicopter which was seen hovering over parts of east Trinidad including Curepe, Tunapuna, Tacarigua and Arouca.

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