The sister isle of Carriacou was stunned last Friday night as murder descended on the popular Maroon Festival. Dead is 70-year old Ivan Bartholomew of Limlair.

Police have charged fifty-eight year old David Diamond Mc Intosh for causing the unlawful death of the deceased. The suspect made his first court appearance on Tuesday before Chief Magistrate Patricia Mark in the Number One Magistrate's court in St. George's.

According to reports reaching GRENADA TODAY, the incident occurred shortly after 9.00 p.m during the staging of the Big Pond Limlair Maroon.

Well placed sources told this newspaper that the slaying took many persons attending the festival by surprise since there was no known altercation between the two elderly men from the sister isle. According to a police investigating officer, Bartholomew was engaged in dancing and out of nowhere he was attacked by another man who stabbed him in the lower abdomen.

It was also reported that some of the persons attending the festival at first thought that the confrontation between the two men were part of the act for the night. "At first we saw the man just standing around and then suddenly he ran up to Bartholomew who was dancing. The next thing is that Bartholomew fell to the ground and we still thought that nothing had really happened, that it was all a part of the act.

"The people only got to realise that something was wrong when blood started to come out of the man and fall on the ground. And the man who went up to him then ran away from the place just like that.
The 70 year old victim, was the main organiser of the maroon, and was in the process of trying to revive the festival after a 14 year absence.

The Maroon is meant to foster greater community spirit among the various villages on the small island. The Chief Magistrate remanded Mc Intosh to the Richmond Hill Prison to make his next court appearance at a later date.