A staged case of suicide was suspected when the lifeless body of Marguetson Legentil, 63, was discovered in a house built of wood and tin in Ti-Rodrigues, Stateland Cité La Cure on Tuesday morning, June 7. The sixty-year-old, who was lying on the ground, had a garden hose tied around his neck and the other end to a wooden structure on the ceiling. However, the autopsy carried out late in the afternoon of the same day concluded that the victim had been strangled. The investigation, conducted by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Metropolitan Police of the Northern Division, led to the arrest of two suspects. They are Yolann Cédric Henriette, 19 years old and Jacques Désiré Perrine, a 49 year old bricklayer, who both live in Ti-Rodrigues, Stateland Cité La Cure. It is a conflict with a group of young people that is said to be at the origin of this aggression.
It was shortly after 9.30am on Tuesday 7 June that the Abercrombie Police Station, St. Croix, was alerted to this macabre discovery. The discovery was made by Fleurette Collet, 51, the victim’s sister, who lives next door to her brother’s house. In the late afternoon of Tuesday 7 June, she went to the Abercrombie police station to give a detailed account of the circumstances that led her to go to her brother’s house.
At around 1am on Monday 6 June, she said she saw four people entering her brother’s yard next to his house. They started throwing stones at her brother’s house. Half an hour later, her son-in-law arrived and with the help of an electric torch, they went to see the damage. That’s when she recognised one of the four men, who lives in Ti-Rodrigues, and Fleurette Collet shouted, “Yolann”. It was then that the four individuals ran away.
The complainant and her relatives then returned to their respective homes. At 3 a.m., they heard noises coming from the house of Marguetson Legentil. As he had a penchant for the bottle, they paid no attention and all fell asleep. It was 9 o’clock on Tuesday morning, 7 June, when Fleurette Collet went to knock on her brother’s door, but he did not answer.
In the meantime, she went to the shop. When she returned, she asked her son-in-law and nephew to break down the door and she made the gruesome discovery. Police officers from Abercrombie Police Station and CID officers attended the scene. Initially, the case was treated as a suicide. But the autopsy performed at about 4pm on Tuesday 7 June by Dr Maxwell Monvoisin, Principal Police Medical Officer at the mortuary of the Dr A.G. Jeetoo Hospital, Port Louis, was not completed. Jeetoo Hospital, Port Louis concluded that Marguetson Legentil died of “ligature strangulation”.
The men of Inspector Ashvin Lulith of the CID did not delay in arresting Yolann Henriette. The latter was brought before the Port-Louis court on Wednesday morning, 8 June, where he was charged with a provisional murder. On the same day, this team of police officers, under the supervision of Superintendent of Police Aniff Thug, proceeded to arrest Jacques Perrine. The CID is actively looking for two other suspects in this case.
