GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Guyana police have issued arrest warrants for two Brazilians accused of killing a U.S. missionary couple in 2005, authorities said Wednesday, the first charges brought in the case.
Peter Marare and Aleiman Cassiano Eligenio, who were ranch hands on the couple's farm, face one count of murder each, said Guyana police spokesman Louis Crawford. Both are believed to be in Brazil. Guyana does not have an extradition treaty with Brazil but will ask its southern neighbor to hand the men over, Crawford said.
Missionaries Richard Hicks, 42, and his wife Charlene Hicks, 58, were found dead on rural property they rented amid cattle ranches and peanut farms in March 2005. Their house was set on fire and Richard Hicks' body burned beyond recognition. His wife was found meters (yards) from the house, apparently killed by heavy blows.
The couple, originally from South Africa and Chicago, spent almost a decade in Guyana translating the Bible into the Wapishana language spoken by thousands of indigenous people near the Brazilian border. They were sent to Guyana by the Dallas-based Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Florida.
Police suspect robbery was the motive.
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