Although investigators found sufficient evidence tying Jairool Rohoman’s husband to her murder, an inconclusive autopsy forced the police to release him, a senior officer has said.
Two months ago, Rohoman, 42, was found floating in the Canje River, with her body bearing a chop wound on the chin, burns on the back, hand and other parts. Rohoman’s long hair had been partly shaven and used to tie both her legs together. A canvas sling was also tied around her waist and legs.
The woman’s relatives are convinced that her husband played a hand in her brutal murder and have questioning why police did not use the incriminating physical evidence found in his home, to charge the man. According to them, pieces of clothing with spatters of blood and a canvas sling matching a piece that was used to tie Rohoman’s limbs together was found at the man’s Gangaram, East Canje home, hours after the gruesome discovery.
A senior police official told Stabroek News that investigators found sufficient evidence tying the husband to the murder but because of the post-mortem examination results – which failed to determine the cause of death, they were forced to release him. The officer confirmed that a piece of canvas sling, matching the piece that was found on the woman, was at the suspect’s house adding that the man is “scotch free for now.”
He said that the police are willing to reopen the investigation once the pathologist, Dr.Vivikanand Brijmohan, reveals additional information. Brijmohan had told Stabroek News that he was not ruling out homicide. He said the cause of death was not known because of the decomposing state of the body.
Rohoman, who was a weeder at the Rose Hall Estate, left her Betsy Ground, East Canje home around 9 am on March 7 to visit her husband, from whom she had separated some three months earlier. He lived one village away. When she did not return home, she was said to be missing and a search was launched for her. The following day persons coming out of Canje Creek told a relative that they had spotted a body floating in the water.
Recently, Stabroek News spoke with the woman’s brother Assim Rohoman, who expressed dissatisfaction with the investigation. He said that he is fearful that the suspect would escape justice and believes that police are to be blamed for this. Assim said that early last week, he saw the man riding a bicycle in the village but “he put he head straight and ain’t tell meh nothing. He walking round this place like a big boy.”
Assim said that he and other relatives are convinced that it was his sister’s husband who killed her and dumped the body in the river with the aim of her never being found.
He said that residents had recalled seeing the woman entering the house on March 7 but no one saw her leaving and that was very strange. The aggrieved man said before the police could arrive, to process the man’s house for clues his relatives went in and cleaned up the place.
“Is tryin they trying to get rid of de evidence because ah can’t understand why they would go and clean up de place and de police didn’t even go there yet,” he added.
Assim told this newspaper that the suspect has a violent pass and he may have committed the same crime twice. He told this newspaper of instances during their 17-year union where he repeatedly beat her. This is what prompted her to move out of his home, months prior to her death.
Assim said that he finds the post-mortem examination suspicious and questioned why nothing was written on the death certificate. He said that he was not satisfied with the results.
The man noted that when he spoke to the pathologist he was told that it appeared as though she was hit and then thrown into the water. “This is wah de docta tell me… but he ain’t write dat pon de paper,” he said.
Assim told this newspaper that on March 7, the suspect was acting suspiciously. He explained that the couple’s 16-year-old son had visited the home and was proceeding upstairs via an outside staircase to watch movies. He said that the suspect locked the door and used an inside step to come outside and inform the teen that he could not go upstairs.
The man said that the teen later told a group of friends that he will soon have to keep wake. The man opined that the child may have witnessed something or suspected that his father had done something to his mother.
Assim said that night the boy returned to the house and saw his father sitting on the veranda in his underpants. Again he was not allowed to enter the upper flat.
The man added that his sister had a new man in her life and this may have angered the suspect causing him to commit the act. He recalled that some time before her death, the husband saw Rohoman and the man in a hammock and he was very upset. The man said that the family has no justice to get as the suspect is walking around freely and “deh happy pun de road.”
He called for the investigation to be reopened as his sister could not tie up herself like an iguana and jump into the creek. He believes that if the police dig far enough, they will prove beyond a doubt that the suspect did kill her.
