-bloody trail points to deadly struggle with killer

Her bloodied handprints on the floor, walls and even the door provided evidence of Pamela Mangru’s grim struggle to live; to escape her knife-wielding reputed husband on Wednesday evening.

Pamela Mangru

But it was a battle she tragically lost because the story the bloody trail revealed was that even as she crawled to the door in her bid to escape she was apparently dragged back into a bedroom of her 79 Public Road, Vreed-en-Hoop home by the man she had shared her life with for less than six months. When she was found, her cell phone, covered with blood, lay next to her body; there  was also some clothing she had grabbed to try and staunch the flow of blood from her throat.

In the end, ‘Pam’, as she was fondly called, who would have celebrated her 40th birthday today, died alone in the home she shared with her two children and the man who allegedly attacked her, 31-year-old Devon Limerick. Police were still looking for him up to press time.

It would appear that the attacker deleted all the photographs of himself from her phone, wiped his bloody hands on his stepdaughter’s towel, changed his pants and, padlocking both the door and the gate behind him, calmly walked away. He later called his brother and told him that he had been in “a fight” with Mangru and he should check on her, but when the brother visited the home the police were already there and he was promptly taken into custody.

Police in a release yesterday said they were investigating the murder and that their investigation revealed that Mangru had an argument with her reputed husband during which she was stabbed to her neck. The police recovered a bloodstained knife from the scene, but they are yet to arrest the man.

Suspect: Devon Limerick

The old saying ‘run away from the jumbie and meet up with the coffin’ could describe Mangru’s life as it was just over a year ago that she finally managed to leave her husband who had verbally and physically abused her for years. She then entered into another abusive relationship that ended in her death leaving her four children ages, 21, 18, 14 and 12 behind.

She never heeded the advice of many relatives, including her sister Amanda Beharry, to end the short relationship with Limerick. Relatives said though she did not see it, they knew the relationship was doomed from the inception because of the young man’s intense jealousy.
Possessive

Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday the woman’s eldest child, Roxanne Mangru, described Limerick as being a very possessive man, who insisted on following her mother wherever she went.

“He was like childish, always arguing about everything. But within ten minutes of arguing they would be back good and playing and laughing,” the young woman said yesterday. She said that while the man was possessive she had never seen him hit her mother and as such she was shocked at the brutal manner in which he killed her mother.

Roxanne said she only moved into the home with her mother on December 31, 2008. Before that she was living with her father and two of her siblings at Eccles. Her 18-year-old brother also lived with her mother while her younger siblings remained with their father.

She said that in the few months she lived at the home, her mother and Limerick had many arguments, especially when he drank, but there was never any physical confrontation.

But according to Beharry, Mangru’s sister, there were many things she hid from them because she knew they were not happy with the relationship and they were insisting that she end it.

The sister said she knew of instances where the man “shoved and hit” Mangru, but on all occasions, according to what Mangru told her, she fought back. She said that the man had once told Mangru that he used to be a soldier and had done cruel things while in the army and he could do those things to her.

“But she was a strong woman she use to really fight you know, since back when she husband use to beat she, she never take it so, she fight back. But this time I guess he overpower her. And if you see the knife he kill she with — a lil lil short knife with no handle,” the sister said.

Roxanne said it was obvious her mother had fought for her life as the entire house was trashed and many items were broken. “I know she fight for she life. If you see how she bloody handprints deh all over. My mother really fight. I don’t know why she had to die like that,” the grieving daughter said.

Roxanne recalled that she got home around 5.30 pm on Wednesday and shortly after her brother and Limerick arrived. She said it was obvious Limerick was under the influence of alcohol as he was talking a lot; something he did not usually do.

“He was like asking us if we appreciate him and if we know how much he love our mother and things like that. But I didn’t take it for anything, because when he drink he does behave like that,” she said.

With hindsight, Roxanne wished she had suspected something was up and had stayed home. “If I was home, I know I would have fight for my mother. I wouldn’t let her die like that,” Roxanne said adding that she had a bath and left the home. She received a call from her mother around 7 pm asking if she was at home and when she responded in the negative, her mother hung up, she said.

Roxanne said she believed Limerick went to the Vreed-en-Hoop stelling where her mother operated a CD store and the two of them went home. It is not clear what triggered the disagreement between the two, but neighbours, including the landlord, heard them arguing and things being broken. Shortly after, there was silence and Limerick was seen leaving the apartment.

The landlord, suspecting that something was wrong, called Beharry, who lives just a few houses away, and advised that she check on her sister. But Beharry said she thought it was an April Fool’s Day prank and as she was frying plantains for her children she did not leave for her sister’s home immediately.

The next call she received informed her that the police had been called by the landlord and were at the house and her sister was dead.

“I still didn’t believe. But me husband ran to the house and I going down the stairs slowly and telling meself it is not true,” Beharry said. The family believed that the woman might have been lying in the house for almost an hour before her body was discovered.

Roxanne said no one called her home and she was shocked to be greeted by a large crowd and police at when she returned to the house. When she was told the news she fainted and had to be removed from the scene.

The family believed that Mangru met Limerick at a resort where he was employed as a lifeguard. They said that shortly after she began the relationship, she had wanted to end it, but the man forced his way into her home and never wanted to leave.

Roxanne recalled that many times her mother told him to leave but he refused and said he would never leave her. Relatives also feel that the man was freeloading off Mangru, as he paid no rent and made no financial contribution to the home since Mangru was capably taking care of herself; and both of her children worked.

“Mommy needed nothing from him. He was the one who needed,” Roxanne said relating that the man, who had started working as a driver with a security firm, had two young children to support.
Fled

The relatives find it ironic that Mangru had fled the abusive relationship she shared with her husband, whom she was married to over 21 years ago, and ended up with a man who would end her life.

“This is a long history of domestic violence. She husband use to beat she bad [he] knock out she teeth and tie she to the bed and beat she,” a male relative of the woman said.

Roxanne said that because of the manner in which her father physically abused her mother, when she attained the age of 18, she left her parents’ home. “I couldn’t take the way he used to beat mommy. He use to really beat her,” the young woman said. But she was forced to return to the home as she could not longer pay her rent. Her mother had already left the home by the time she returned and shortly after she invited Roxanne to live with her.

Relatives believe that because Mangru was already a battered woman she was no match for Limerick when he practically forced his way into her life and attempted to control every aspect of it.

Because of the mutilation of the woman’s body the family plans to bury her tomorrow, after a post-mortem examination which is expected to be done today.
Graphic evidence
Meanwhile, the PNCR has described Mangru’s death as yet further “graphic evidence that domestic violence is reaching epidemic proportions in Guyana. She joins a growing list of women who have been brutally killed by a partner or spouse.”

The party said it supports a proposal by activist Eusi Kwayana that a commission of inquiry be established to look into the question of abused women and to make recommendations as to how the scourge can be effectively tackled.

“Such a commission should make a close examination of the root socio-economic causes of domestic violence in order to arrive at a better understanding as to why it disfigures Guyanese society at this particular point in its history,” the party said. Further, the party said, society and all relevant Guyanese should ask themselves why the Domestic Violence Act of 1996, which was passed in parliament, the Stamp it Out! Consultation that was mounted by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security and other relative programmes and policies do not seem to have an impact on the rise in domestic violence.