– slain woman’s dad says
Kumar Persaud, the father of the woman who was found murdered along with her two children at Anna Catherina, said he never approved of her partner who remains in custody as police continue their investigate into the triple murder.
He said numerous reports were made to the police of the abuse his daughter faced at the hands of the main suspect.
“You know how much report deh at the station for he? He used to beat she steady, steady… She used to lie to the family though. When we ask, she is say no, he good, he don’t do duh,” Persaud told Stabroek News last evening at his daughter’s home where the three bodies were discovered.
Jennifer Persaud, 41, and her sons Afridi Bacchus, 6, and Jadon Persaud 18 months were discovered on Saturday evening in the woman’s bedroom with stabs wounds and slit throats.
The woman was found lying in a pool of blood on her bed, clad in nightwear, with the body of the older child on her. The infant was found on the ground beside the bed also in a pool of blood with his neck partially severed.
Police on Monday told Stabroek News that two persons are currently in custody assisting with investigations.
The father of the dead woman told this newspaper that it was he and his grandson who went into the home on Sunday evening and found the lifeless bodies of his daughter and grandsons.
“We went to the house around 8:55 after we ain’t hearing from her and first thing I do is ask the neighbour for Jenny, they say them ain’t hear nothing,” he said.
Persaud said he observed that the gate was locked from inside since the lock was facing inwards, raising his suspicion. “I know she was in there because if she de leff n gone out, the lock woulda deh outside but it de turn inside,” he explained. When he and his grandson went to the back door, he continued, they were prepared to use a hammer to break the door but to their surprise, with one tug, the door flung open.
According to the man, inside the house was dark and although his grandson tried to persuade him to turn around, he continued up the stairs in search of his daughter. “He been telling me don’t go up the step because it dark and if anybody upstairs they can lash me in my head as I go up. But I say you come behind me, if anybody get lash is me and he say ok,” he recalled.
Upstairs, Persaud said, his grandson proceeded to check the bedrooms. “He come and he say ‘Daddy, somebody lie down in deh’ and I go and the netting was halfway up she foot and when I touch the foot, it stiff like board… The six-year-old boy was lying across she chest and he head fling back with he throat slash,” he recalled.
After relaying the information to the waiting relatives downstairs, the police were called. “The police took one and a half hour,” Persaud said, adding, “I get vex. We end up calling 911 and spoke to the commander and they say the police will be there shortly. When the police come, is the community policing group and they hussling to empty house and I told them to keep out. When we call back the police, then they send black clothes police.”
He opined that the killer had to be very familiar with the house since there was a problem with the lights and none were functioning. “We had to go and get lamps to use. We didn’t even see the baby. Is when the police come with more lights we see the little boy brace against the head board with his head down. How his head went, we couldn’t see if his throat de slit too but he was dead. All of them were dead because all of them were very stiff,” Persaud said.
He noted that nothing was taken from the home. “There was no robbery. Forty something thousand was right by she head. She had six gold rings, bangles. Jewellery in another container and nothing was taken,” he explained.
In addition to this, he said that there were no signs of forced entry nor was there blood in any other part of the house, except the room where the bodies were discovered.
At the scene that evening, the dead woman’s partner and main suspect, arrived and enquired from the grandson who made the discovery what was happening. “He said he hear is a murder and when my grandson ask where your son deh, he say he ain’t know,” Persaud said, adding that the police arrested him and took him into police custody then.
As police looked around the house that night, birth certificates and passports belonging to the children, the woman and the suspect were found on a barrel along with two packed bags of clothes for the baby.
Yesterday, Bacchus was laid to rest under Muslim rights and at the funeral, his maternal grandmother received a telephone call from the main suspect’s mother. “She call my wife to speak to her but the boy father take the phone and say you know is not my son… Is somebody else,” he said, noting that the name of the second suspect was called.
The family believes the killer premeditated to take the baby since bags were packed with his belongings. Also, Persaud said that in the second suspect’s home, a third bag of the baby’s clothing was found.
Persaud said that after viewing the bodies during the post-mortem examination, he realized that while his daughter and older grandson’s throats were slashed, the baby’s neck only had a small hole to which appeared to have ruptured a main vein.
“We never like him or approved of him,” Persaud said, making reference to his deceased daughter’s partner. According to him, the man was deported from the United States, but no one knew what offence he had committed. When he first returned to Guyana, he continued, the man was involved in carpentry. However, after striking up a relationship with his daughter, the man chose to remain at home and assist her with the business.
