One of the daughters of Leolyn Sullivan, the Linden woman who was allegedly stabbed to death by her common-law husband on Monday morning, yesterday recounted witnessing her mother being killed as she and her sister watched on helplessly after unsuccessful efforts to intervene.
Sullivan, 34, a vendor and mother of six of Wisroc Housing Scheme, Linden, was stabbed over 15 times about her body by her partner, Clarence Carter, 50, in the attack. The man also wounded her daughter, Shemeka Campbell, 18, whom he stabbed to the neck and arm before turning the knife on himself in an unsuccessful bid to end his own life.
Saskeya Campbell, 16, was still trying to come to grips with her mother’s sudden death yesterday when she recalled the attack.
She said she was awakened by the sounds of loud arguing and fighting coming from her mother and step-father. She said she walked out of her bedroom to discover her sister, Shemeka, begging Carter not to stab her mother anymore more, since he had already done so once.
“I walk out the room and I see Shemeka between them and Carter slam my mother into the freezer and hit her” Saskeya said.
She explained that after the woman managed to get free, the man then ran her around the house to subdue her in order to inflict more stab wounds.
“Me sista (Shemeka) try fuh part them and then is when he stab she and all to she neck and she walk towards me telling me to come help she but like I couldn’t move,” the girl said. She further noted that Sullivan tried to distract the suspect after she realised that he was beginning to harm her children. The woman ran into a bedroom of the house and jumped through the window. However, this got the man angrier and he dealt Shemeka another stab to her arm before venturing out of the house in an attempt to recapture Sullivan.
The terrified girl said that she also ran behind her mother. “Before I could have reach in a neighbour yard, where my mother went, I see the man sitting on my mother and continuously stabbing her, telling she that she got to dead,” Saskeya noted.
She said at this moment all the neighbours were alerted and they assisted in taking the dead woman and Shemeka to the hospital. Saskeya said since the ambulance took a while to arrive, they had to transport them in a minibus because of their conditions, especially that of her mother. She added that while all this was transpiring, Carter returned to the house and slit his throat with the murder weapon.
Saskeya said that days before, she had heard the couple arguing about who would have to leave the house but she never thought that things would have taken such a violent turn. She noted that arguments between the couple were constant.
The girl said her mother had played the roles of both parents. “My mother does have to work and take care of us alone because that man don’t work, my mother does have to look after him,” she said.
She added that while she is unaware of what may have sparked Monday’s rampage, she knew her mother had left for Georgetown on Friday to visit a sick friend and only returned Sunday evening before leaving again with a friend for an event in the village.
This, she said, may have set off the suspect.
Meanwhile, Carter, is now in police custody at the Mackenzie Police Station lock-ups.
Commander of ‘E’ Division Calvin Brutus yesterday told Stabroek News that Carter will be held in custody until the post-mortem examination is conducted and legal advice is sought on the matter. The post-mortem examination is expected to be performed today.
Shemeka Campbell was also discharged from the Linden Hospital yesterday.
