By CECILY ASSON Tuesday, October 13 2009

THE SEARCH for a suspect who was among two men wanted for the September 19 murders of Kelon Salandy, 16, and Rondel Thomas, 15, in Tobago, surrendered yesterday to police in the Moruga forests. The other suspect was killed in a shootout with police over the weekend. The wanted man, according to police, contacted a friend telling him to get in touch with the police and tell them that he was ready to surrender. According to a police report, at about 9 am, officers from the St Mary’s Police Post and Princes Town Police Station went into the forest off Poui Trace in St Mary’s Village, Moruga where they met and arrested the suspect.

He was taken to the St Mary’s Police Post and later transferred to the Princes Town Police Station where he remains in custody. The suspect is expected to return to Tobago for further questioning.

His surrender came two days after his accomplice Gary Mohammed, 29, was killed in a shootout with the police at a shack in the forests off St Mary’s Village, Moruga. A team of officers acting on a tip-off stormed the shack where the two suspects were hiding for the past two weeks. A shootout ensued and Mohammed was fatally wounded while the other man escaped.

After hiding out in the forest in Mason Hall, Tobago for several days, the men fled Tobago in a fishing pirogue and on arriving in Trinidad, went into the Moruga forest.

Mohammed’s relatives expressed disappointment that up to late yesterday his body was not released from the mortuary of the San Fernando General Hospital for an autopsy to be done at the Forensic Science Centre.

Mohammed originally from Ste Madeleine, migrated to Tobago five years ago and operated a fruit stall in downtown Scarborough.

The bodies of Salandy and Thomas were discovered in some bushes at French Fort, Scarborough by members of a church group who had gone into the area to pray.

As part of their investigations, Tobago police said that images taken from a surveillance camera showed Salandy getting into a car shortly before his body was found. Salandy who lived at Patience Hill, was a Sixth Form student. Both he and Thomas were stabbed to death.