Police awaits autopsy report on missionary

November 4, 2010 (Page 51)

THE police are awaiting autopsy report on Reverend Sydney Thomas Barnes, an American missionary who was murdered on his farm at Akwamu-Amanfo, near Nsawam, on March 18, 2010 by his driver and two others.
Kofi Seidu, the driver and farm manager of the deceased, who confessed to the crime and led police officers to exhume the deceased’s body on October 11, 2010, cited Pastor Goodwill Padmore, Principal of Prestige Secretarial and Business Academy, and Issaka Mohammed, a mason, as his accomplices.
The three, who were first arraigned at the Accra District Magistrate's Court presided over by Mr Kofi Ahiabor, on October 19, 2010, were yesterday remanded to reappear on November 16, 2010.
At the court's sitting in Accra yesterday, the prosecutor of the case, Mr Cletus Adamlura, prayed the court to remand the accused persons because the autopsy report on the deceased was not ready.
The accused persons have been charged with two counts of conspiracy and murder.
Their pleas have not been taken.
The facts of the case are that the deceased was the founder of the Cross Road Christian Mission Inc and Proprietor of Prestige Secretarial and Computer School, both in Koforidua, where he had lived since 1997, and also owned the Manna Mission Farms at Akwamu-Amanfo.
He said on December 12, 2009, Rev Barnes proceeded on leave and, as was his usual practice, travelled to the US on holidays and was due back on March 18, 2010. Seidu, who had been in the employment of the deceased for the past 12 years, was asked to pick him from the airport.
The prosecutor said Pastor Padmore dispatched Seidu from Koforidua to Accra to pick the deceased from the Kotoka International Airport with a Land Rover vehicle with registration number WR 418 P.
According to the prosecution, Seidu called Padmore on phone around 11:30 p.m. on March 18, 2010 and informed him that Rev. Barnes had not arrived.
Seidu allegedly drove the said Land Rover to Nsawam Adoagyiri and on arrival, a witness in the case detected that Seidu had sustained injuries on both hands.
The prosecution said Seidu told the witness, who had enquired about the cause of the injuries, that he (Seidu) was involved in an accident with a Caucasian friend who was on admission at the St. Joseph Hospital in Koforidua.
On that same day, Seidu gave a laptop to a witness in the case to open for him and upon booting the laptop, the picture of the deceased appeared on the screen.
A tourist bag believed to be the property of the deceased was also found in the Land Rover and upon enquiry, Seidu told the witness that the bag belonged to the Caucasian friend of his.
Following the disappearance of Rev. Barnes, a complaint was lodged with the police, who eventually effected the arrest of Seidu.
During interrogation, Seidu allegedly confessed to killing Rev. Barnes and mentioned Pastor Padmore and Mohammed as his accomplices.
Seidu eventually led a team of police officers from the Homicide Unit and pathologists from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to Akwamu-Amanfo, where he identified the grave in which he had buried Rev. Barnes.
On October 13, 2010, pathologists performed an autopsy on Rev. Barnes’s body but are yet to submit their report.