Family of suspects in T&T girl’s murder says harassment continuing

The family of the contractor wanted over the month-old murder of a Trinidadian teen is still receiving threatening calls from a person claiming to be a relative of the dead girl and who has said both suspects have been captured and are being tortured.

Nikita Ramischand, 18, the daughter of prominent Guyana-born attorney Odai Ramischand, was killed on April 25, with the main suspect being a 25-year-old Guyanese construction worker, Ramesh ‘Alvin’ Sookram. The man fled to Guyana after the murder along with his 16-year-old cousin who is also said to be a suspect.

Dhanwantie Sookram, the mother of the main suspect, told Stabroek News yesterday that she continues to receive phone calls from a man who had initially identified himself as a relative of the dead teen. Graphic threats on her family were constantly made but the distressed mother said this has ceased and the caller has since claimed that he has captured the two suspects himself. According to her, the man painted a gruesome picture during his last call on Sunday, when he explained that he has both her son and nephew and has been torturing them.

Nikita Ramischand

She explained that she told the man to do as he wished once he feels that it is the right choice and that he stops contacting her once it is over.

“I tell he I understand his pain and grief but at the same time he can’t be tormenting a home, threatening me and my children like that,” she said.

A Trinidad Newsday article, dated May 14, said the murdered girl’s father had admitted to contacting the relatives of the suspect, giving them a deadline to bring him in.

Sookram said although she feels a little more relieved since the threats to her and her family have abated, she still finds it hard to sleep at night. She added that if her son returns home, she will do all within her power to hire a lawyer before turning him over to the police. “I will try my best to take a lawyer and turn him in but this boy ain’t calling, ain’t coming or nothing. That is the hurtful part. He ain’t doing nothing. Sometimes I sit down and pray that I can just see he walk in this yard,” the woman said.

Nikita is believed to have been ambushed while walking to her mother’s salon which is situated in the compound of their LP 46 Maracas Royal Road, Maracas, St. Joseph, Trinidad and Tobago home. She was reportedly dragged behind the premises and stabbed to her abdomen. Her bloodied body was discovered behind the salon at about 8pm. An autopsy revealed that the teenager bled to death after her throat was slit. She also suffered six stab wounds to the abdomen.

After the girl’s murder, Sookram and his cousin returned to Guyana and travelled to their respective Soesdyke, East Coast Demerara homes, where no word of the girl’s death was mentioned. The following day after his return, Sookram left his home and failed to return while the cousin waited until reports surfaced of a second suspect and then disappeared as well.