By CECILY ASSON Wednesday, October 3 2012

A 31-YEAR-OLD sales clerk was stabbed repeatedly in her chest, shortly after her evening bath, in full view of her horrified 12-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son at their Williamsville home on Monday night. The victim was left on the floor with the knife sticking out of her chest.

Up to press time yesterday, a manhunt was underway by police for the male suspect. The brutal murder of Shanti Sewlal has left her relatives traumatised and residents in the quiet community of Esmeralda Branch Road in Williamsville in shock.

According to police, Sewlal took out a restraining order against her killer citing his abusive nature towards her. Unknown to Sewlal and her children Brian and Britney, the man sneaked into the house and hid. At about seven o’clock on Monday night, Sewlal had just taken her evening bath and when she entered her bedroom, the man jumped out at her and started stabbing her. She was stabbed, police said, three times in the chest, with the last stab being so forceful that the knife handle broke as the blade was thrust deep into Sewlal’s body. The woman’s screams alerted her children, with Britney running to a house next door where her grandparents (Sewlal’s mother and father) Roy Sewlal, 60, and Rowtie Sookram, 59, live.

“We heard Britney frantically calling by the door. She was saying, ‘open the door, open the door, he stabbing mammy, he stabbing her,” a female relative stated. A call was made to the police who, relatives added, arrived two hours later, when Sewlal was long dead and her killer, long gone.

“Shanti’s father ran to her rescue but by the time he reached, it was too late. She was already on the floor bleeding. Her eyes were rolling upwards as the blood pumped out of the stab wounds in her chest. Her children...like they were going crazy as they were bawling and screaming,” the female relative added.

Relatives said Sewlal had taken out the restraining order on the 36-year-old man whom she had been in a relationship with for the past 13 years. Relatives added that the man was displeased with the restraining order and began stalking her.

Police told Newsday the killer subsequently contacted a female relative of his saying he wanted her to take him to the home of another relative who lives in La Brea. The relative picked up the killer and while driving, begged him to surrender. He asked her to stop the car and got out. He has not been seen since.

A party of officers led by Snr Supt Lewis and including Insps William, Matthews-Noel, Haynes, Hooper and Sgt Roopnarine visited the scene. The body was ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre where an autopsy will be done today.

When Newsday visited the house yesterday, Britney, a Form One student of Gasparillo Secondary School and Brian, a Standard Two pupil of the Happy Hill Hindu Primary School, were being counselled in another room by officials of the Police Service Victims Support Unit.

A cousin told Newsday, “You know what Brian told us last night? He said, ‘thank God Mammy gone to meet Jesus in Heaven. That man can’t do her anything again and I still have my ‘dada’ (grandfather) who loves me.”

The female relative, who asked not to be named, said Sewlal had taken out the restraining order as she became fearful for her safety and the safety of her children.

“He was a possessive person and never treated her well. She suffered mental abuse as well from him. Recently he started hitting and that’s when she got serious and decided to end the relationship,” the relative said.

The relative said the suspect had made several threats on Sewlal’s life and reports of these threats were made to the Marabella Police Station. “Shanti’s male cousins spoke to that man on several occasions warning him to stay away from her,” the relative said.

The relative said hours before being murdered, Sewlal started a new job in Marabella and told her children how happy she was.

“Why didn’t he just leave her alone? When they were together, he always told her that he no longer wanted to be with her. And when she made her move to end the relationship...he started to stalk her. Why couldn’t he just leave her in peace,” the relative asked. Detectives from the Southern Division Homicide Investigations Bureau are continuing investigations.