The police are wrapping up their investigations into the 2013 murder of Diamond businesswoman Sirmattie Ramnaress and will soon be dispatching a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice on whether the suspect who was detained last Friday should be charged.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum when contacted yesterday said that detectives are still looking for two other men who have been implicated in the crime. A fourth man, identified as the now deceased Paul Bascom, was implicated by the suspect as the mastermind.
Acting on intelligence, police swooped down on a house located not far from Ramnaress’s 21st Street property and arrested the suspect, who reportedly had in his possession a laptop computer which was identified as belonging to the murdered businesswoman. He later provided information which led investigators to a diamond ring in his girlfriend’s possession. The ring belonged to Ramnaress.
Ramnaress, 36, was found dead on the morning of August 31, 2013 with a stab wound and injuries to her head and body in the garage of her Lot 2430 21st Street, Diamond home. While petrol was strewn all over her house, it was the bond at the back of the yard that was set alight and destroyed. The woman’s body was discovered after the fire service was called about the fire.
The suspect told investigators that the businesswoman was familiar with Bascom as she had sometimes hired him to do handyman work for her. The suspect claimed that hours before the murder, Bascom and two other men slept at his house. It was apparently there that a plan was devised to lure the woman out of her heavily secured home and rob her of her valuables.
Based on what this newspaper was told Bascom went to the fence and informed Ramnaress that he had spotted a snake in her yard. Given her fear and the fact that she was alone, she opened up her gate to give Bascom access to her yard to look for the reptile.
Stabroek News was informed that after Bascom entered his three accomplices sneaked in behind him.
Investigators were told that the businesswoman was then attacked and after she began to scream she was killed. A post-mortem examination had determined that she died as a result of a ruptured spleen and brain haemorrhaging.
The quartet then ransacked the house before fleeing.
Ramnaress’s house was like a fortress leading those who knew her to have concluded that the killers were known to the woman as she would not have opened up for a stranger.
