Police are investigating a report of a suspected suicide committed by Hector Calvin Hartwell, a 40-year-old businessman of Lot 13 Windsor Estates, Providence, East Bank Demerara (ECD). Hartwell is suspected to have shot himself sometime between Monday and Friday of this week at his home.
Investigations revealed that Hartwell lived alone in a two-storey concrete structure in a partially fenced yard. His body was seen in a sitting position on a mattress in a pool of blood, with a suspected gunshot wound to the right side temple. A .32 Taurus pistol was on the bed next to the deceased, along with one suspected .32 spent shell. A 12-gauge shotgun was also seen about seven feet from the body.
Hartwell’s 35-year-old ‘child mother’ Allana Donally, of Eccles, East Bank Demerara, would usually visit from time to time but left last month to go on vacation to the United States of America.
Donally said she spoke to Hartwell on Monday evening via telephone and he told her he was frustrated with life and would kill himself. Since that call, Donally said she tried contacting Hartwell, but all proved futile. She went on to say that yesterday (Thursday), she sent her 26-year-old cousin, a nurse, to check at the house for Hartwell, which she did and related that Hartwell’s vehicle is parked in front of his house, and the inside lights were on. Donally said her cousin made several shouts and even knocked on the door, but she got no response.
Around 08:00 hrs today (Friday), Donally returned to Guyana and ventured straight to Hartwell’s house, where she used her personal key and opened the front door. The woman said she noticed a chair blocking the door from the inside. She removed it and made her way upstairs and observed the front bedroom on the northwestern side locked.
She managed to get the door open by force and saw Hector Hartwell’s body lying in a pool of blood. The house was not ransacked, and there was no forced entry seen. She then reached out to Rudolph Banwarrie, the Chief Security Officer at Windsor Estates, who called the police.
The body was escorted to the Diamond Diagnostic Center and was pronounced dead on arrival by Dr Barker. The body is at the Memorial Gardens Funeral Home awaiting a post-mortem examination.
