7 MORE MURDERSBy NEWSDAY REPORTERS Wednesday, December 30 2009
THIS year seems set to end on a bloody, deadly note as within the space of less than 24 hours, between Monday and yesterday, the murder toll rocketed from 497 to 504 with seven killings being recorded.
This spate of murders kept Homicide Investigations Bureau detectives, district medical officers and undertakers very busy and several families in mourning. There were four murders on Monday between 5 pm and 11.30 pm and three murders yesterday between 1 am and 1 pm.
Two of the murders were as a result of domestic violence, while a taxi driver was found shot dead, a teenager shot dead, a grandmother being raped and strangled, a Beetham man gunned down and a man who was stabbed on Christmas Eve, succumbing to his injuries at hospital yesterday.
The following are details of these seven murders listen in chronological order from Monday to yesterday.
Murder 498 -
Grandmother of 5 strangled
Police have launched a manhunt for a man who broke into the Princes Town home of grandmother of five Rampiaree Sahadeo, 68, and strangled her. According to police, at about 5 pm on Monday, relatives who visited the elderly woman who lived alone, found her body on a bed in the house at Watson Trace, St Croix Road, Princes Town.
Police said a man’s underwear was found near the bed but up to press time, it could not be confirmed if Sahadeo was sexually assaulted. Police believe the killer gained access to the house by removing several louvre panes and climbing through the window.
Fighting back tears, Sodra Rahaman said her mother had lived alone for several years and her violent death has thrown the entire family into a state of shock and deep mourning.
“She did not deserve this kind of brutal and inhumane death,” Rahaman said. Rahaman’s sister Savitree Lee said their mother was last seen alive on Sunday. No arrest has been made.
Murder 499 -
Teen killed for cigarette
Keon Francis was stabbed after refusing to give a man a cigarette to smoke. According to police, at about 6 pm on Monday, Francis was found by police bleeding from several stab wounds along Market Street in Arouca.
He was taken to the Arima District Hospital and was pronounced dead-on-arrival. Police said they were told that Francis refused to give a man a cigarette and during an argument, was stabbed repeatedly by the man who then fled the scene.
Francis’ cousin Candace Roberts was inconsolable as she waited outside the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday for the autopsy report. “Imagine that...they killed my cousin for a cigarette! But we not worried, we leave it in God’s hands. God don’t sleep and what goes around comes around,” Roberts cried.
Francis’ mother Shelly Burrowes said she too was leaving her son’s killing in God’s hands. “Keon was a loving boy. He went to church regularly. To the youths out there, I say, live for Jesus,” Burrowes said. No arrest has been made.
Murder 500 -
Taxi driver shot dead
An hour after Francis was killed, police were called to Mandarin Circular, Santa Rosa Heights in Arima where the country’s 500th murder for the year took place. At the scene, police discovered the bullet-riddled body of taxi driver Anthony Ramdeen slumped in the driver’s seat of his taxi.
Police said that at about 7 pm, residents heard several loud explosions and contacted the police. When officers arrived, they found 38-year-old Ramdeen’s body in his Nissan B14 car. Police said the residents reported seeing a man fleeing the scene after the gunshots stopped.
Ramdeen’s common-law wife Daniar Chuniesingh said she was baffled as to the motive behind her husband’s murder. “He was a father of four who was loved by everyone who knew him,” Chuniesingh said outside the Forensic Science Centre yesterday.
Another relative said Ramdeen operated his taxi on the Arima-Pinto Road route for the past six years. No arrest has been made.
Murder 501 -
Woman’s throat slit
Tricia Henry, 30, never stood a chance when she was attacked, stabbed several times and her throat slit by a man whom she knew and with whom she broke off a relationship recently.
After committing murder, the man slit both of his wrists in an apparent suicide attempt. He was subsequently treated at hospital and on being discharged, was immediately taken into police custody.
According to police, at about 11.30 pm on Monday, the man contacted Henry and told her to come to his Roystonia, Couva home which she shared with him before she ended the relationship.
Relatives of Henry who was an administrative assistant at the National Energy Skills Centre (NESC) in Couva, got a report that the man was keeping Henry against her will and hurried to the house which they found locked.
Police said when Henry’s relatives peered through a window, they saw the man holding a bloodstained knife. When they called on him to open the front door, he refused and slit his wrists. Henry’s relatives broke down the door and found her dead in a bedroom. The police were called in. Her mother Noelene said Henry did not deserve such a violent death. “They split up. It was over. Why he had to go and do my daughter this?” she cried.
Murder 502 -
Beetham man gunned down
CEPEP employee Corey Davis, 20, of 11th Street, Beetham Gardens was gunned down not far from his home during the early morning hours yesterday. While his father Arnim Ramnath claimed his son was murdered out of sheer jealousy, police said this murder was gang-related.
According to reports, at 1 am, several gunshots were heard and the police called in. Davis’ body was found on the roadside with blood seeping from several gunshot wounds.
“I believe people were jealous of him. He worked honest and worked hard. He had everything going for him. Other than jealousy, I can’t say I know why anyone would want to kill him,” Ramnath said. No arrests have been made.
Murder 503 -
Woman stabs man to death
A Belmont woman was detained yesterday shortly after stabbing her boyfriend to death during a domestic squabble at her apartment home. According to police, barber Quincy ‘Doc’ Samuel, 28, of Campo Street Extension, San Juan went to his girlfriend’s Building Three, Belmont Terrace home where an argument broke out at 9 am yesterday.
During a fight, police said, the woman armed herself with a knife and stabbed Samuel once in the neck. He died on the spot.
Police said they are working on several leads in the case including reports that both Samuel and the 30-year-old woman would regularly get into quarrels and fights with each other. Samuel’s friend and fellow barber Sheldon Davidson described him as a “cool person” who kept his personal life to himself.
Murder 504 -
Stabbed man dies
A man who was stabbed while liming at a bar on Christmas Eve in Sangre Grande, succumbed to his injuries yesterday afternoon at the Sangre Grande District Hospital. Police said that Dwight De Silva, 20, was attacked and stabbed near the Big Bang Night Club off the Eastern Main Road in Sangre Grande on December 24.
After being warded for several days at hospital, de Silva’s condition deteriorated yesterday and he died at about 1.30 pm. His body was removed to the Forensic Science Centre. Commenting on the spate of murders, acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert yesterday pointed out that the murder toll was well short of the all time record of 545 set in 2008.
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