Craig woman found with slit throat

...after suspected robbery

A woman was yesterday afternoon found dead in her ransacked home with her throat slashed and stab wounds about her body and police suspect she was the victim of a robbery.

Up to late last evening investigators were trying to track down three men who were seen entering Sita Reddy’s Craig, East Bank Demerara home shortly before the gruesome discovery was made.

Sita Reddy

Reddy, 54, of Lot 139 Second Street, Craig Village, was found in a pool of blood in the lower flat of the two-storey house by her husband around 2:10 pm.

Her family was yesterday still assessing what was stolen. Police said in a press release that a post-mortem is to be done on the body, which had wounds to the neck and head.

When Stabroek News arrived at the scene, a large crowd had gathered outside the home, which is protected by a high fence and gate. For visitors to enter, they must have a key or the gate has to be opened from the inside. Visitors can also enter through a neighbouring yard where there is an adjoining gate. Residents living nearby said that no one heard any strange sounds before the screams rang out.

Brian Hiraman, the woman’s son-in-law, told Stabroek News that it is unclear what happened at the house.  He recounted that the woman’s husband, Permaul, was stopped by police at Providence and could not find his documents. According to Hiraman, Permaul called home and asked his wife to look for them. He eventually found the documents under the car seat and when he called back Reddy the phone rang out.

Hiraman said that with the phone ringing out, his father-in-law decided to go home. When the man arrived home, he said, he did not find her on the upper flat which was ransacked. When he ventured downstairs and turned on the light, he found his wife lying in a pool of blood on the floor. Hiraman said that the man immediately called his daughter.

He said that based on what he has since learnt, a young woman saw when three men arrived at the house to buy chicken. Reddy started a chicken business at her home about three months ago. He explained that based on the woman’s account, the men got on to Reddy’s property through an adjoining gate.

“Look the police ain’t do nothing. Look two days ago that man get rob at the back deh, clean up them man whole yard, nobody nah do nothing. It mek sense you tell the news what going on. All the police gon seh is that we gon forward the investigation and they never further nothing,” Hiraman said.

‘It ain’t mek sense’

He noted that last March, bandits escaped with millions in gold and money from Reddy and since then the woman “said if dem to come back, she gon fight back and I feel she fight back.” He added that Reddy was “the kind of person who would defend her belongings. She is physically fit.”

Hiraman questioned why Reddy had to be killed. “If yuh gon rob somebody, wha yah kill them fuh? Lef them let them live so that they could get more,” he lamented. He noted that his mother-in-law started the chicken business because she was at home and had nothing much to do.

The man was adamant that nothing will come out of this matter because of his previous experience. “It ain’t mek sense me tell y’all, ’cause the police nah do nothing,” he said, while adding that since the robbery last year police are yet to find the culprits.

He added that a man was robbed several days ago and nothing much has come out of that matter. “I feel that the police should start doing some serious investigation because at the other corner two days ago that man get rob and then now she get rob and then murder,” Hiraman said. He dismissed the suggestion that the village is an easy target for bandits, saying instead that “these people targeting anybody.”

“I want the president to pay the police more to do a better job. If they are paid better wages, they would do a better job. They would find whoever they have to find when they commit a crime,” he added.

Other relatives who spoke with Stabroek News said that the woman never expressed any fears about being alone at home. Like Hiraman, they called on the police to act swiftly and ensure that the killers were caught. They along with residents noted the perpetrators had several different routes to escape.

Reddy is the fourth woman to have been murdered for the year, after Bebe Jahooral Banu, 66, of De Willem, West Coast Demerara (WCD), who was found dead on January 1; Afrozie ‘Lizze’ Ali, 40, of Lot 56 Zeelugt, WCD, who was killed on January 14; and Rushelle Rodney, 32, of Blankenburg, WCD, who was killed on January 20.