Very interesting--thanks for posting this.
Another article on Gumshuda, husband of three.
http://www.pennyharrisfoundation.org/Accomplishments.htm#Couple%20Found%20Dead%20in%20Reservouir
Couple Found Dead In Reservoir
April 19, 2002
By LARRY SMITH, Courant Staff Writer
EAST WINDSOR -- An empty taxi cab and a trail of clothes led police to the bottom of the town reservoir and two corpses Thursday morning.
How the cab's driver and one of his three wives ended up in the reservoir in East Windsor Park is a mystery.
Mohammad Gumshuda, a 53-year-old Afghan immigrant , and Simmer Hider, who police said was 22 or 23, , were found in 10 feet of water 100 feet from shoreby police divers. Police are waiting for autopsies and toxicology tests to be performed by the chief medical examiner's office.
Park maintainer Keith Tetro noticed something amiss as he made his early morning check of the park. He found the cab with its keys and a cell phone inside. He followed a trail of clothes and shoes leading down to the reservoir. He then called police.
"I figured there was something suspicious," Tetro said. "I don't see things like that around here. I've lived in this town all of my life and I don't think anyone has ever drowned here."
When police arrived they searched for the owners of the clothes and used the town's police dog, Gotcha, who kept indicating the trail ended at the reservoir, Officer Matthew Carl said. The dive team was called and it removed the bodies around 9:30 a.m.
Police said they are trying to find out if Hider was in the country legally. Gumshuda's first wife told police that he sponsored Hider's immigration from Afghanistan to the United States, but police could not confirm that Thursday, Carl said.
She also told police that having more than one wife is acceptable in their culture. Islam permits a man to marry more than one woman under certain circumstances. Gumshuda and his three wives lived in the same apartment at 33 Summer Court, police said.
Gumshuda was an independent cab driver who picked up his fares at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks through people calling his cell phone number. Hider spoke no English and was not educated, Carl said.
Gumshuda and Hider were seen at the park sometime before 4 p.m. Wednesday and then went back there before 2 a.m. Thursday, Carl said. What happened after that is uncertain.
Carl said police are not sure if it was a murder/suicide or if one of the two had an emergency and the other tried to help out and both drowned. Family members told police the two were afraid of water. There was no visible trauma to the bodies, he said.
Gumshuda's three brothers visited the scene before the bodies were removed from the park. Visibly shaken, the three cried as they knelt to view the bodies.
"We lost two of our family," Gumshuda's brother, Abdul, said by telephone Thursday afternoon. "It's a bad time for us. I can't even talk - it's not a time to say anything."
Yar Kohsar, a friend of Gumshuda, described him as a friendly man who spent most of his time driving his cab.
Kohsar said he met the family in the Hartford area and that Gumshuda visited his Wethersfield home. He said he heard about the deaths through his son.
"Why they went down there I don't know," Kohsar said. "He was such a very nice man. I was shocked."