A mother’s worst nightmare became a reality yesterday afternoon, after her reputed husband acted on a repeated threat to take the lives of his two younger children and then commit suicide.
Simon Boodhoo
Loren Banarsee called Donna received the shock of her life, when she returned to her Lot 18 Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara home around 4.15 pm to discover her reputed husband hanging from the roof of the bedroom, while her two youngest children were lying dead on a bed beneath his hanging body.
Dead are 61-year-old Simon Boodhoo, his son Samuel Boodhoo, 12, and his six-year-old daughter Krystal.
Banarsee said when she returned to her home yesterday afternoon, she was greeted by an unusual silence. She said that she made the gruesome discovery when she entered one of the bedrooms in the home.
According to her when she entered the bedroom, “I see de father hang heself deh and den de two children lying down frothing”. She also observed a whitish substance coming from her daughter’s eyes. She also said that there was vomit on the bed.
Samuel Boodhoo
The mother said after making the discovery she rushed to the phone to make a call but was unable to make the call because her hands kept trembling. She ran over to her neighbours, who she said rushed over and who proceeded to contact the police at the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station. The police came and they supervised the removal of the bodies she said.
The grieving mother said that when she had left for work at 7 o’clock only her daughter was awake. She said that just before she left the house she was teaching her daughter to write. Her last memory of her daughter was her repeatedly saying, “Bye bye, mummy, bye bye”. She said her son and her reputed husband were asleep. The two usually slept together while she and Krystal slept together, she said.
According to Banarsee, her reputed husband was an abusive man “who would threaten to kill me and meh children” but she didn’t expect him to do what he did. They would get into regular arguments, some of which resulted in her having items thrown at her or being beaten by him.
Krystal Boodhoo
The most recent argument occurred on Friday evening, when she said he told the children that they were the cause of the disagreements. The distressed woman said, “he gat to be totally ignorant and mad to kill his children. If he deh do it to heself is okay, but not taking dem two children. Dey ain even know nuthin about life.”
Banarsee said her husband was a pensioner who stayed at home. He was most recently employed at a resort where he worked for two months as a barman, but subsequently left the job. According to her, he had lived in the USA for some time and they had a long-distance relationship. When he returned to Guyana to live in 1996, they continued the relationship and the next year she gave birth to Samuel, she said. They previously had two older sons together, aged 25 and 23, who both live in the family home and who are both employed.
According to her, her two young children were close to their father, as he would care for them while she was at work. She explained that whenever he had to care for the children, he would make porridge for them, and it is her suspicion that he put something in the porridge.
Banarsee said Samuel had just written the National Grade Six Assessment exam and would have started attending the Vreed-en-Hoop Community High School in September.
She recalled that on Wednesday her sister had asked her why she did not make a report to the police concerning her reputed husband’s behaviour; something she now regrets not doing. According to her, maybe if she had listened to her sister, her children would still be alive today.
And in spite of her agony, Banarsee said she was grateful that her two older sons were not at home, as she was convinced that they might have all been dead.
Meanwhile, her 23-year-old son Richard Boodhoo briefly recounted to Stabroek News how his father would abuse his mother and even him when he was a child. He recalled once when he was younger, his father hit two of his teeth out of his mouth.
Richard said that in recent times, whenever his father attempted to hit his mother he would intervene. He, too, was distraught at the deaths of his younger siblings, who, he said, did not deserve to die the way they did.
Police are investigating the matter.
This man must have been severly depressed and everyone missed the signs. Why would he kill his kids? He should have been protecting his family, not abuse them.
Blackhawk6, the Sunday Chronicle says the dead man’s wife said “her husband was in a constant state of depression due to the fact that he was impotent, which not only ‘aggravated him’ but set him thinking ‘negatively’ about her.” Maybe, Viagra might have lifted his spirits and saved three lives, who knows?
Yet another tragic story of senseless killings , when will it end ?? Many women who are victims of domestic abuse/violence are not reporting the matters to the police and leaving the perpetrators and taking their children with them . The government must provide homes/shelters for these mothers and their children . Two sweet children have gone too soon – because their mother accepted the abusive treatment from their father and refused to put wheels on her heels and leave the “sick” man . The healing of the guyanese society must be given number one priority and the leaders of the society must deal with it , very soon . The culture of violence must be halted , in order to stop the demise of Guyana , socio-economically .
viagra would give him cardiac arrest anyhow.
WIGGINS
What you are saying is true, but when you have a government that is only seeing themselves and not the people, things like this will continue. Some sick minds wud say it happens all over the world, but it is easily solved, but many guyanese refuse to pay heed.
what do you want , the govt must go door to door and find out who is depressed or abused.
GET REAL PEOPLE>
I can understand he wanting to take his own life but to punish her for his problem by taking her children away from her is a cruel act. Deepression could make the best of us committ suicide, but murder as well…that’s takes a special fabric of cruelty. My sympathy goes out to the poor woman. As a mother myself, I know that I can’t even begin to imagine her pain. My heart aches for her. Her grief must be unbearable and all-consuming.
Unfortunately if women being murdered all over Guyana has exposed this govt as helpless and lacking leadership while the social infracture crumbles and fails Guyanese, I hardly believe that these rocket scientists in the PPP is capable of making any connection to depression in Guyanese men and these heinous crimes they commit. More often than not, it is the straw that breaks the camel’s back yet the psychologists are still Missing In Action, not put to work, not even summoned.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”- VOLTAIRE
Yes. Blame Jagdeo and his sorry gang of incompetence. The social illnesses that are eroding the social fabric of the Guyanese society is as a direct result of his administration’s incompetence in dealing with it, and yes it is indeed his administration’s responsibility to make policies that would directly address this issue head on.
Yet the red bell has been sirening out of control for years while Jagdeo played president of Guyana. And now as his role wraps up, he now plans for his own safety net (luxurious pension), and pulls at windpies and water custard for a lasting legacy that will only be what it was, not what he hoped it would be. Even the dull and ignorant could make that connection. Guyanese have severely suffered and flee under his administration, that’s a legacy of incompentence he could be certain of.
“Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.”
–VOLTAIRE
this cuz me to burst into tears of what this father did to his2 innocent kids why was he so cruel to those two innocent kids who did not deserved to die like. may there soul R.I.P.and may his never ever find rest…my prayers and thought are with this family….mom be strong god will see you through….you see she did not report his threat and look what happen…to report any threat even how minor in the long run it will benefit you…R.I.P kids
very, very sad indeed. so much grief for the mother to bear. she just cannot blame herself because if the husband’s intent was on sucide then he would have found a way regardless. it is just sad that he had to take those two innocent lives along with his disgruntled life.
Geeeeze!
full criminal4real.
Tragic and cowardly. Condolences to the deceased families and friends. When will it end?
nutin cud ave stopped this criminal from carrying out his death wish…..MAY the kids RIP:::::condolences to family……
no the govt must go door to door and solve everyone’s problem, solve your own god dam problem.
How very tragic. Mercy, if he wanted to kill himself, fine. But why take the lives of two innocent children. I think that he did it to spite his wife. Condolences to his wife and other children.
The man was obviously troubled. All of the warning signs were there-residents here and then return home for no plausible reason, leaving job within a month of getting it, citing children as cause for breakdown in relationship. The country needs a suicide hotline if they do not have one already. When someone threatens to comit suicide report it immediately – most often they follow through on the threat.
My condolences goes out to the family, sorry it had to end that way.
If he wanted to go then just go, but don’t take the kids.
May this be a warning to our many women folk in abusive relationships….. get out before its too late.
My sympathy to the surviving family members.
What he did was wrong man
He probably been threw a lot of thing but that still don’t give him the right too kill them