A mother of seven was yesterday hacked to death at Rasta Country, Laluni Creek, Soesdyke-Linden Highway allegedly by her husband who dragged her body into bushes and covered it with grass.
Tessa Romascindo, 35, had little chance of surviving the chops which included about six to the neck and at least five more to the back, shoulder, jaw and hand. The couple and five of their children lived in an isolated area in the community located about 13 miles from the Linden/Soesdyke Highway.
The alleged attacker Sewnarine Deonarine, 47, had reportedly told relatives that he had consumed a poisonous substance. Up to press time last night he had not been found.
A police official told Stabroek News, that fresh footprints suspected to be his were found but they yielded few clues as to where the man might be. The official said that ranks searched the area for the man and the murder weapon but came up empty-handed.
The official said that the man is continuously calling relatives but he has not said where he is.
The couple was home alone when the incident occurred just before 10 am. It is believed that another of their usual arguments erupted and it escalated to the point where Deonarine picked up what is suspected to be a cutlass. Ramascindo attempted to run to safety but was attacked in the yard a few feet from a side door. A pool of blood was evident at that spot and investigators believe that this is where the chopping started. It is believed that on realizing that the woman was dead, she was dragged into the bushes behind the house by the assailant.
When Stabroek News arrived on the scene, a large crowd had gathered and many expressed shock at the incident. Members of the police crime scene team, who arrived at the same time, proceeded with their investigations. Some were seen looking at the woman’s bloodied body while other ranks were scouring the grass and surrounding area for evidence.
The woman’s children and other close relatives wept uncontrollably. A daughter Monica Deonarine,19, recalled leaving the couple in good spirits around 7:30 am. She recalled that her mother prepared the younger children and she (Monica) took them to school. Before she left, Monica said that she told her mother to cook and clean up and when she returned they would wash. “I lef her by de front window standing up watching meh”, she recalled fighting back tears.
After taking the children to the Laluni Primary School, she said she visited an aunt who lived in the area. According to Monica, her father called her aunt around 10 am requesting to speak with her. “He tell meh dat he kill meh mother and he drink poison and then he cut off de phone”, she said.
Monica said that when she arrived there was a crowd and she saw blood. She said that she spotted her mother’s body in the bushes near the toilet. The young woman said the sight was too much for her so she did not go closer to have a look. She was later told that her mother was clad only in a t shirt and underwear and that there were multiple chop wounds on the body.
“When I lef they been good good. I lef and go by my aunt, I never expected he fuh do this”, she said between sobs.
She later told Stabroek News that she doesn’t believe that Deonarine drank poison as he is claiming. She said that when she checked the house, a pair of his pants and a shirt were missing.
Both of them were helpers on a farm in the area.
She said that two elder siblings resided elsewhere while she along with four siblings lived with the couple.
Six years of abuse
Monica told Stabroek News that the couple has been having problems for about a year now. The couple had been together for more than 20 years.She said that recently the couple had a misunderstanding and her mother left the home last Saturday but returned on Monday night. The young woman said that her father had threatened to kill her mother but reports were never made to the police.
“He use to abuse her a lot but she never went out and seek help” she said.
Meanwhile, an emotional Wavney Romascindo told this newspaper that several months ago, Deonarine had hit her sister but no report was made to the police. She described her sister as a person who kept her problems to herself and who would always put on a happy face.
“He is not a good person. He ain’t use to treat her good… My sister was a very quiet person”, Wavney said adding that the family moved to the area from the North West District when they were very little. She last saw Romascindo last Saturday at the Laluni Heritage Day celebrations.
“I don’t want to see him no more if he is alive”, she said sadly. Romascindo is the second woman to be brutally killed in this area since the start of the year. In February, Ramdarrie Rajpattie, 57, also called “Auntie Idoe” and “Queen” died three days after the father of her children allegedly broadsided her with a cutlass.
Rajpattie was also a victim of domestic violence. The beatings were more severe when the man, Bertie Baicho consumed alcohol.
Baicho remains in hiding.
