Flown Away - Part 2

This case was feat. on Unsolved Mysteries & Disappeared.

Moses & Lila

Bhagwaniala Lall also known as Moses Lall was a 31-year-old Indo-Guyanese man who hailed from a prominent family that specialized in exotic birds & animals for export since the 1970’s. The Lall family lived in the Guyanese capital of Georgetown, where they bought animals from local trappers who scoured the jungles for various types of parrots & tropical birds.
After a brief but unsuccessful stint as a student & model in Canada, he moved to the US in 1986 to start an exotic bird business. His mother Mahadi Lall set up a warehouse in Queens NY called Malabar Aviary Inc. where his family would export birds from Guyana & after the quarantine period Moses would then sell them off to pet stores in the US. 
His 35-year-old aunt Lilawattie Buerattan came over from Toronto to help with the business and she worked her magic to ensure the birds were well cared for & healthy. 
Together they took great care of the birds & business was slowly taking off. On some days they would sleep in the warehouse after a long day of caring for the birds. 
In 1987 they leased some land in Northern Florida and setup a sanctuary of sorts to keep the birds more comfortable in a warmer, tropical climate until they were sold. In 1992 they finally settled on a 5-acre ranch in Loxahatchee Florida where they could house & care for almost hundreds of birds at a time. 

Moses would often travel to Africa to acquire exotic reptiles for his family business. He handled all the business dealings and his aunt handled the birds.
The US passed a Wild Bird Conservation Act in 1993 banning import of exotic birds into the country so Moses & Lila could no longer rely on their family exports to acquire birds. They now shifted their business model & focused on breeding the birds they already had to sell in the US.

Lilawattie had a knack for taking care of the birds and soon ran a budding bird breeding program at the ranch. She would wake up early & hand feed the little hatchings, wean them and socialize them appropriately until they were healthy enough to be sold. 

They hired Daljit Hari Gobin aka Harry, an Indo-Guyanese man who was a family acquaintance. They also hired another man called Roland Felix Eyoum the brother of an African reptile dealer Moses had met on one of his trips. 

Abandoned Birds

One fine day on June 4th 1994, a delivery driver Daryl from a company called Bird Haven brought birdseed as scheduled to the Ranch and was surprised to find the gate locked & chained up. This was unusual, the ranch hands knew of the delivery dates and left the gate open for him every week so he could drive up and deliver the sacks right at the doorstep.

After 8 days Tim Tegreeny owner of Bird Haven came over to take another look at the ranch & to his utter surprise the 40 sacks of sunflower seeds & dried corn lay right there at the gate unclaimed. He could hear the birds shrieking in absolute distress. He made the decision to hop the fence & take a look. He walked up behind the 3-bedroom ranch home and made his way to the bird cages. He was faced with a horrific scene & a horrible stench. 

There lay hundreds of dead birds – Parrots, Macaws, Toucans at the bottom of the cages and other birds weak & dying screaming in terror. Some of the birds had resorted to cannibalizing the dead in order to survive. It was a nightmare especially for local people who loved & cared for birds. 
Tim called all his bird breeder friends including a famous aviarist called Howard Voren and together they raised enough of a ruckus that finally the authorities responded & on June 15th the Palm Beach Sheriff’s officers came over to assess the dreadful situation. 

Inside the house awaited another horror. Incubators, still operating, contained dead babies that had hatched but were never fed. Aquarium brooders that were lined up against the wall all had dead baby blue-and-gold macaws. All had starved to death, sitting on clean bedding, while waiting for their next meal. An open bucket of handfeeding formula was on the kitchen counter with a bowl and spoon next to it. It appeared as if someone had changed the bedding in the brooders and was ready to mix up some formula when he or she was interrupted. 

They counted nearly 500 dead birds and another 330 birds that were dangerously close to dying. Howard & local aviarists all stepped in to help and hand fed hundreds of birds to save them. 

The birds that had died were estimated to be worth at least $500,000! And the living another $200,000. This was a huge financial loss for the Lall’s. They definitely wouldn’t have just upped & left like that. The surviving birds were sold off by Florida Animal Control to the public after the Lall family was unable to pay the hefty sum of $180K to claim them. Many of the birds went to inexperienced people who had no idea how to care for them & just bought them because they were selling for mere hundreds of dollars or less.

Missing: Moses, Lila, Felix & Harry

Moses Lal’s mother was contacted & she flew over to Florida. She told them that the last time she heard from Moses was 5 days before the delivery driver had left the packages. Moses had called his parents in Guyana to say he was sick with malaria after returning from a trip to Africa. He said he was resting and that Lila was in the kitchen cooking. He had sounded stressed, unlike himself and hurried. 

Just a few days later on Jun 18th the cops traced ranch hand Roland Felix in NYC. He said he had quit work and moved to NY 2 weeks before the Lall’s were missing. He also told them that on Jun 4th he had received a disturbing call from the other ranch hand Harry. Harry had told him that he had just witnessed some smugglers take Moses, Lila and a bunch of birds at gunpoint in a white van. Why didn't Harry call the police though??

When investigators had searched the home, they found just a couple of mattresses on the floor and a few chairs, a guitar and some magazines. There was nothing else in the home for them, not even couches or carpets. Lila’s room was full of baby birds that she took care of 24x7. 

The cops brought in Lall’s mother to look over the property & point out if anything was out of place. She immediately noticed that the family’s white 1992 Plymouth Voyager van was missing. The cops put a BOLO out for the white van & actually got a hit a few weeks later.
In July Investigators were notified that the van had been impounded at a traffic stop arrest 400 miles away in Richmond Hills Georgia a month ago on Jun 7th. 

The driver of the Van had been transporting tropical parrots & a hundred exotic turtles when he had pulled over to the side of the road to fix a flat tire. A State trooper had checked on him & **the license handed over by the driver was that of Moses Lall** & was found to be suspended so he was arrested and spent a night in jail. He posted bail & left the next morning.

When the mugshot was shown to his mother Mahadi Lall, she identified that man as Daljit Hari Gobin the missing ranch hand! 
The van was searched & along with many expensive birds, reptiles & turtles they found an instructional tape on how to change one’s identity. The cops had him & had let him go because they couldn’t tell the difference between pictures of 2 Indo-Guyanese men. Harry was among the last people who had seen Moses & Lila alive & the cops had lots of questions for him but he vanished after this incident.

Dirty Harry

About a year before the disappearances, in early 1993 police were called to the Lall’s ranch to deal with Harry. He was very upset & had threatened to harm himself because Lilawattie had vehemently rejected his advances. He claimed to be in love with her but she wanted nothing to do with him. Ok tough situation but they all apparently moved on from this. 

Then in October of 1993 Harry had fled in the family van stealing $29000 from Moses. Somehow the family managed to track him down when he reached NY and had the cops catch him. Harry begged Moses to drop the charges which he did because Harry agreed to return the remaining $26000. Moses also agreed to let Harry continue to work on the ranch. This was a terrible mistake imo.

Rumors, theories & Strange incidents after the disappearance

The motives for the disappearance of Moses & Lilawattie were unclear. The Lall family was absolutely certain that they were being held against their will or were already dead because there was no way those 2 would have ever abandoned so many birds & animals for so long. 
There were many crazy speculations that the Lall’s ran away to avoid dangerous loan  sharks, they were captured by smugglers etc etc. Mahadi Lal rubbished the loan claims, she said their family was able to financially support any request Moses had put for money if they needed it. 

A single bird, such as a South American blue-and-gold macaw, can fetch as much as $1,200 at a pet store. Scarlet macaws go for about $1,500, and a hyacinth macaw, found only in Brazil, sells for $8,000. The Bird business is no side hustle it’s big bucks!
Rumors in the bird breeding community was that Moses had been selling off a lot of birds right before he disappeared & may have had close to $100K cash at home. Seems like a good opportunity for thieves to strike, an inside job perhaps from a certain known petty criminal at the ranch...Harry?

But here’s a tidbit that doesn’t paint Moses in the best light, he had $28000 of unpaid import fees that he had to pay up to the Govt. He was cutting corners and doing some illegal stuff it appears. Did that leave the possibility open that Moses indulged in more **serious shady business-like smuggling birds** or selling off the books?

Strangely on June 9th, the day that Harry was out on bail, Howard Voren had received a consultation call from a NY bird broker who was inquiring about the salability of hawk-headed parrots, orange-winged Amazons and African Grey parrots. Voren knew instinctively that these must have belonged to Moses Lal as he was the main importer & breeder of these birds. Eventually the broker admitted that she had been contacted by an African reptile dealer trying to sell these birds to her. He had told her that the birds indeed belonged to Moses Lal and were given to him by Moses when a reptile deal fell through. Moses had money; he wouldn’t just give away birds. Who was this African reptile dealer..could it be Roland? 

on June 18, a couple weeks after the ranchers were missing, a fisherman discovered a 100 dead Congo Greys or African Grey Parrots in a field in western Palm Beach County. The birds, worth approximately $500 apiece, wore bands identifying them as the property of Malabar Aviary - Lall's company.

Howard Voren said legitimate bird breeders compete with smugglers, he also said that some breeders and smugglers get together to sell illegal birds through the legal market.
Voren was propositioned by smugglers & declined offers to set up a front for smuggling operations. It is possible that the Lalls were approached as well. Did their refusal to smuggle birds end badly for them?

We can only speculate in the absence of concrete evidence.
Years later in 2011, Harry was somehow traced by the cops to Jersey City, New Jersey. He was living under the alias Roy Smith. However, when detectives arrived at his workplace, he had fled just 4 minutes earlier. By then he had gained a lot of weight & also went by the name of Blackie.

Roland Felix Eyoum was arrested in 1995 for illegally importing pancake tortoises in Miami. He was in jail for a year & then was deported back to Africa. He has not been heard from in the US since then.

And so, we are at an impasse in this case, Moses & Lilawattie were never found, Harry & Roland are gone. What really happened on the Lal Ranch on Jun 4th 1994?

**Harry is a Wanted Man**

Well, the Palm Beach Sherriff think he is guilty of murder and definitely want to hear from you if you have any tips. Harry is 65 years old, 5’7”, Indo-Guyanese male and has a noticeably smaller right eye. Gobin is now believed to be in the Philadelphia area. He is now considered by the Palm Beach Sherriff’s office to be the prime suspect in Moses and Lila's disappearances.

**Useful Links & Sources:**

https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/4239dmfl.html

https://charleyproject.org/case/bhagwaniala-lall

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1994-07-20-9407200102-story.html

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Moses_Lall_and_Lila_Buerattan

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25184608/missing-ranch-worker-spotted/

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1995-05-21-9505240230-story.html