Brighton woman, 85, bludgeoned to death

His grandmother failed to wake at her usual time and he blamed it on the rain but several hours later when he decided to check he discovered her battered body in bed with a bloody piece of wood lying on the floor in her ransacked Brighton, Corentyne house.

Sookree Arjune

Sookree ‘Stella’ Arjune, 85, spent all her life in the Berbice village of Brighton. At approximately 9.40 am yesterday she was discovered dead by her grandson Jiteshwar Devanand. Inves-tigations are currently ongoing and police, in a release last evening, said that Arjune’s body is at the Skeldon Hospital Mortuary awaiting an autopsy.

Devanand, speaking with Stabroek News last night, said that his grandmother was a pensioner but continued to sell rum; it was her life-long means of supporting herself. Arjune, he said, lived in the house in front of his. She lived alone in the upper flat of the house while her brother lived on the ground floor.

The distressed man said that he’d last seen his grandmother at about 6 pm on Monday. He spoke with her that evening and then left to tend to his horse and cattle. After he’d finished his chores on Monday evening, Devanand recalled, he retired to his front verandah as he normally did to watch over his horses. His wife and child were already in bed.

From his seat Devanand could see his grandmother’s house. At about 8 that night (Monday) the man saw Arjune’s house lights go off. He said he assumed that she’d turned them off and had gone to bed.

Every morning, Devanand said, he would usually rise around 6 and the first of his morning chores is to sweep his grandmother’s front yard. It was raining yesterday morning, he said, and he didn’t bother to call out to her.

“I seh de rain fallin’ so she feel like sleepin’ lil late so I lef’ she,” Devanand said.

After sweeping Arjune’s yard the man left with his horse. Devanand breeds race horses and said that he usually took them out for exercise each morning after sweeping. Later, he saddled a second horse and left for the “backdam” where he has cattle to tend. The man returned home after 9 am and decided to go upstairs and check on his grandmother.

“Ma! Ma!” Devanand said he shouted several times. After he got no response he decided to walk up her stairs. He discovered the door open and pushed his way inside. Immediately he noticed that the place was ransacked and several items, including his grandmother’s dentures, were on the floor. He called out to her a few more times as he rushed to his grandmother’s bedroom.

“Meh run to meh grandmother room and meh see she deh wrap up tight on the bed…me pull the pillow from she face and me start to scream …” Devanand recalled. “Me and meh brother grow with she since we small…all de rest ah we family live overseas.”

The bloodied piece of wood (3 inches thick, 6 inches wide and several feet long) was lying on the bedroom floor, he said.

His grandmother’s head was bashed in. It was much later that he discovered that her “cloth bag” in which she kept her money was lying empty on the floor.

“Meh would say that she had over $40,000 in deh,” the man said.

Devanand said that there are two men who had been at his grandmother’s place drinking on Monday evening. Those were the last persons in whose company she was seen. He has since reported the matter to the Number 51 Village Police Station and has given them all the details.

“Me na know exactly who do this but de police going to have to catch them,” Devanand repeated several times.