– six women savagely killed
March was a deadly month for women since of the ten murders committed six were of women, reportedly at the hands of their partners, decidedly brutal and mostly following years of abuse.
Of the six cases, police have since issued a wanted bulletin for one of the suspects while one turned up at a police station with wounds he claimed were inflicted during a struggle with his dead spouse. Police questioned and released another suspect after a post-mortem examination could not determine how the woman died while the others remain at large.
The other four murders were committed during armed robberies and the total number of murders for the month is higher than the six murders committed in February. There were 15 murders in January.
As regards the murders of women, the March figure
represents a significant increase when compared to the two domestic violence (DV) related killings that had occurred during the first two months of the year. Knives were used in five of the DV killings.
Omeka Todd, 20, became the first murder victim for the month when she was brutally stabbed by the father of her two children.
The woman succumbed around 1 am outside the Ketley Primary School in Charlestown, where she ended up after fleeing from the attacker who inflicted numerous stab wounds. It all started in the couple’s Lot 15 Ketley Street home.
Police have since issued a wanted bulletin for Charles Rollins called `Chuckey’.
Two days later, Canada-based Guyanese Rawle Harding was shot dead during a gun point robbery at Cool Square Bar.
Harding, along with his cousin Clarence Roberts and a taxi driver were at the bar when two men entered and purchased beverages. They subsequently pulled out guns and confronted Harding and his cousin and one of them grabbed a gold chain Harding was wearing. When he resisted, he was shot in the abdomen and later succumbed at the hospital. The gunmen had also robbed Roberts and the bar’s cash register.
The entire incident was caught on surveillance cameras including the face of one of the gunmen.
Two men – Dwaine Critchlow, a 27-year-old miner of Vigilance, East Coast Demerara and Junior Bourne, 19 of Lot 687 East Ruimveldt – have since been charged with murder.
A foul smell emanating from an Eping Avenue, Bel Air Park apartment on March 4 aroused suspicions. Police were informed and the decomposing remains of Dr Guillermo Martinez, a 58-year-old physiotherapist and 47-year-old Usawatie Persaud were found.
A police officer told Stabroek News recently that following the deaths a marriage certificate with their names printed on it was found. Persaud lived in New Amsterdam, Berbice with her reputed husband.
Police had said that they were treating the case as a murder/suicide. A post-mortem examination (PME) on Persaud found that she was stabbed about the body multiple times. One done on Martinez, a Cuban, was inconclusive but investigators believed that he had consumed poison after killing the woman. Several samples were taken from his body for further testing.
Inconclusive
On March 9 the remains of Jairool Rohoman called ‘Chico’, 42, were found floating in a canal at Canje.
Rohoman’s head was partly shaven and her long hair had been used to tie her feet together. A canvas sling that was tied around her waist was also used to bind her hands and feet together. There was a chop to her chin and burns on her back, hand and other parts of her body. One of her eyes was also bulging out.
Despite these telling signs that the woman was a victim of murder, a PME on her body was inconclusive.
The police had held her reputed husband, whom she had separated from three months earlier but he was released.
Then five days later, the charred remains of newspaper vendor Jacqueline George was pulled from her burnt home at Lot 120, ‘E’ Field Sophia. It was later discovered that the woman’s throat had been slit prior to the blaze.
Her reputed husband who was the prime suspect had vanished. However, he turned up at the Turkeyen Police Station with several stabs wounds to his body which he claimed were inflicted during a scuffle with George. He was taken to the Georgetown Hospital where he was admitted a patient under police guard.
On March 18, boat captain Vasdeo Persaud, 39, of Parika Façade, East Bank Essequibo was feared drowned after pirates forced him and his crew into the waters off the Venezuelan Coast in a vicious attack.
Persaud and a three-man crew had left Parika two days earlier on the fishing boat Sudesh to fish in the Atlantic Ocean. The pirates sprayed sections of the boat with fuel and set it alight to force the men out. One, Mohan Singh, called ‘Pepie,’ was hospitalised in Venezuela after suffering major burns.
The three crewmembers were saved after clinging to a buoy for hours. Persaud’s decomposed body was found days later but was buried in Venezuela because of its state.
Then on March 24, a Brazilian miner was killed during an armed robbery at his mining camp. Francisco De Asis Da Rocho Muniz, 60 was shot twice when gunmen invaded his mining camp at Black Water Backdam, Cuyuni River.
Investigations have revealed that Da Rocho, who had a batel with a quantity of raw gold, was with four other men working in a mining pit when a man armed with a gun approached and discharged rounds into the air. The armed man then held him at gunpoint and took away the batel with the raw gold and escaped into the bushes.
Subsequently, another armed man then approached and discharged rounds at Da Rocho, which hit him in his abdomen and right shoulder. Both perpetrators escaped.
The wounded man was taken to the Bartica Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Hacked to death
Liloutie `Pinky’ Seeram, 32 of Glasgow Housing Scheme, East Bank Berbice was hacked to death and her mother badly chopped when her husband attacked them with a cutlass around 1.30 am on March 27.
Seeram, a mother of two, was wounded to the back of her head and three fingers on her left hand were severed. Her mother, Lata ‘Cheryl’ Inderdeo, 52, was chopped on her right shoulder and left palm and had to be hospitalized.
The woman and her husband, Rooplall ‘Kelly’ Boodhoo, 35, a cane cutter, had constant misunderstandings over his drinking habits and he would physically abuse her. He fled the scene with a rope and a cutlass after committing the act. The man had been seen drinking with his brother and friends before the attacks and when he arrived home, he and Seeram had a quarrel.
Police are still looking for him.
Hampshire, Corentyne businessman Hansraj Samaroo died at the Georgetown Hospital less than 24 hours after he was shot when bandits invaded his home.
Around 7.30 pm on March 27, four masked bandits stormed him home and stole almost $1M in cash and jewellery after shooting the man in his left leg.
On March 31, Donna Williams, 27, was stabbed to death while she was crossing the Tabatinga Creek in Lethem from Brazil where she lived. According to reports the woman was in the company of her mother and seven-year-old son when the unidentified assailant believed to be Brazilian stabbed her to the upper part of her body.
The man fled into Brazil on a bicycle. Williams had reportedly ended a relationship recently. Local police have sought the assistance of their counterparts in Brazil.
