US-based Guyanese man charged with wife’s murder

– was found sawing off victim’s neck in Queens

A US-based Guyanese man was yesterday charged with murder after nearly decapitating his wife during the course of an argument in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York.

According to a report from the New York Post, Prem Rampersaud was taken into custody after two persons discovered him while he was in the process of sawing through the woman’s neck.

Prem Rampersaud as he was being placed in a police car. (ABC7 Eyewitness News photo)
Prem Rampersaud as he was being placed in a police car. (ABC7 Eyewitness News photo)

“The 50-year-old man allegedly confronted the woman — identified as being in her 40s — about a man she supposedly met online…,” the report said. It was reportedly after midnight and the two were at the corner of 124th Street and 103rd Avenue when they got into a fight, the report added.

During the course of the argument, Rampersaud allegedly out a large kitchen knife and stabbed the woman several times in the chest, shoulder and both hands.

Two eyewitnesses, who happened to be walking down the street at the time, discovered the man kneeling over the woman’s body making what appeared to be sawing motions with a large knife. They said it sounded like he was cutting through bone, the report added.

In response to queries from one of the eyewitnesses on whether he needed assistance, Rampersaud reportedly turned around and looked at the pair for a moment before continuing to saw through the victim’s neck.

The police were called and they apprehended Rampersaud a few blocks away. He was later  charged with murder and possession of a weapon

Meanwhile, the woman, whose identity was being withheld pending family notification, the report said, was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital; a knife believed to be the murder weapon was recovered at the scene.

“Police said Rampersaud gave his wife approximately $9,000 to move to the US from their native Guyana about a year ago and eventually followed her to Queens where they moved in together,” the report added.