T&T businesswoman found stabbed to death

(Trinidad Express) A 65-year-old businesswoman was found stabbed to death at her home yesterday.

Petra Manwaring was discovered dead on the kitchen floor of her home on the Southern Main Road, Lagoon Village, La Romaine.

Police said she had been stabbed to death.

A brother and sister are helping the police with investigations.

The body was found around 10 a.m. by one of her sisters who could not reach her on her phone, police said.

Relatives did not speak to the media as they sat at a neighbour’s house looking on at crime scene investigators and homicide detectives.

The Manwaring family owns an industrial and construction contracting company which does work with Petrotrin.

Maurice White, a driver employed with the Manwaring family, said he went to the house around 8 a.m. to take her out.

Petra Manwaring

“On Wednesday, she told me to come and take the vehicle to fix. So when I came I knocked on the door upstairs. Her brother came by the window and he was telling me something but I couldn’t understand him.

“I waited on the stairs to see if she was coming out and when I didn’t see her I called out for her again.

“I checked the doors downstairs (of the office) and they were all locked. I thought she left, maybe took a taxi to come back. So then I left,” White said.

The employee said he was told Manwaring lived with a brother who has Alzheimer’s disease, and a sister, who was mentally ill.

Neighbours said she was last seen on Wednesday.

“We had something for her in the fridge and she came to collect it. I think she was going to cook. She seemed normal,” one said.

Responding were ASP Ali Mohammed, Insp Don Gajadhar, Insp Persad, Sgts Persad and Ramdial and others.