Police have released a second man held for questioning in connection with the murder of pensioner Bebe Jahooral Banu, who is among five elderly women murdered over the past year for which the perpetrators remain at-large.
Banu’s body was found on New Year’s Day at her Lot 5A De Willem North, West Coast Demerara bottom flat apartment, with her stockings, pants and underwear pulled below her knees, her top pulled up to her shoulders and a piece of cloth around her neck.
A post mortem examination revealed that Banu, 66, died of manual strangulation. A man was initially held for questioning but was released after police said he was not a suspect. A second man was later held before also being released.
Police have said that there have been no further developments in the case though investigations are continuing.
Banu’s murder is one of several cases where elderly women have been brutally murdered or raped and which remain unsolved as police have yet to find any leads that would support the institution of criminal charges against the suspects.
On February 15 last year, Rampattie Ramsundar, 64, was found in the kitchen of her Lot 88 Second Street, Enmore home, with her hands bound, an item around her neck and marks of violence about her body. A post-mortem examination revealed that Ramsundar, also known as ‘Aunty Daro,’ died as a result of asphyxiation due to manual strangulation compounded with blunt trauma to the head.
The woman lived alone. Robbery was suspected to be the motive behind the woman’s murder, since she was said to have had $600,000 in her possession around the time she was killed. The money was not found. Initially, two men were held for questioning but later released as police found no evidence that could link them to the murder.
On March 4, last year, Babali Sadiq, of Lot 2115 Gaulding Place, South Ruimveldt Park, was found bound and gagged in the kitchen of the bottom flat of her home, a few yards away from a confectionary stand she operated. Sadiq, who was also known as ‘Khirul Rajidam’ and ‘Aunty,’ was said to be in her early 70s and she lived alone. She sold snacks to school children for her living.
Police have never made any arrests in the case.
Sukhdai Ramkilaum’s murder also remains unsolved. On April 19, Ramkilaum, 68, called ‘Mama Rose’ and ‘Rosaline,’ was discovered in a pool of blood in her bedroom at her Lot 80 Vryheid’s Lust North, East Coast Demerara residence.
Neighbours found her clad only in a t-shirt in her ransacked bedroom. They had decided to go in search of her after having not seen her during the day.
A police tracker dog picked up a scent that led to the home of a man with whom she had had a feud. He was taken into custody but was later released since he could not be linked to the crime by any evidence.
Later, on August 29 at Mahaica backlands, 68-year-old Phulmattie Rami’s relatives found her beaten and broken body floating in a canal at Cane Grove.
The fisherwoman/vendor was stripped and beaten to death before her body was thrown into the canal. Relatives said Rami left her home everyday between 6.30am and 7am to go into the backlands to catch fish and shrimp and it would have been easy for someone to track her movements.
Her daughter said Rami would usually be back by 2pm if she did not go to sell her catch. When she failed to return, her relatives became worried and launched a search for her. They said when they reported her missing at the Cane Grove Police Station, officers told them to search for her.
They found her clothes along a dam that she normally traversed and her naked body floating in the canal about four miles away. A post-mortem examination revealed that the woman died
of multiple injuries. No arrests have been made.
