A shocking case of violent death has rocked a small Trinidadian community after an autopsy confirmed a 35-year-old man who begged police for help more than a day before his body was found was murdered. Adrian Peter Duff, a resident of Rodney Road in Las Lomas No 2, suffered a brutal death at the hands of an attacker, according to post-mortem results released this week.
The autopsy, carried out Monday at the country’s Forensic Science Centre located in Federation Park, reached a clear conclusion: Duff died from ligature strangulation, a fatal form of asphyxia that occurs when the neck is compressed with a cord, rope, wire or similar flexible object. Beyond the fatal strangulation, the examination also revealed the victim had been stabbed multiple times across his body.
Duff’s remains were recovered last Wednesday from the Caroni River, near Esperanza Road in Las Lomas No 3. Law enforcement investigators noted the body was positioned roughly two meters from the river’s western bank, lying face down in shallow water with its head fully submerged. When found, Duff was wearing a black jersey and black jeans, and a rope was bound around both his neck and feet. Forensic markers also recorded cuts on his forehead, right elbow, right wrist and left thumb.
The timeline of the tragedy began the previous Monday, when Duff placed an emergency call to the 999 response line. In that call, he told officers he had been attacked and chopped in a local cocoa field, and desperately needed urgent assistance. Immediately after the call went unanswered and Duff failed to return home, his friends and family launched their own independent search for him.
On Tuesday, searchers made a grim intermediate discovery: Duff’s bicycle had been burned, and a clear trail of blood could be traced from the site to the nearby riverbank. A full 36 hours after his original distress call for help, on May 20, searchers and authorities found his body.
In the aftermath of the gruesome discovery, Duff’s relatives say they are left with more questions than answers. The 35-year-old was widely known and well-loved across his tight-knit community, and family members say he had no known enemies or conflicts that would have put him at risk. Relatives added that Duff, who lived with epilepsy, was unmarried and had no children. He often made trips into the region’s forested areas to collect wild nuts and fruits, a routine activity that likely put him in the area where he was attacked.