(Trinidad Guardian) A 25-year-old woman from Santa Cruz was allegedly stabbed to death by her estranged lover before he unsuccessfully tried to take his own life on Saturday.
According to police reports, around 2 pm, Gabriella Francis, of Munroe Road, La Canoa Road, Santa Cruz, went to the 33-year-old suspect’s home at Penguin Crescent, Maloney Gardens, Arouca.
The suspect’s mother told police that she left Francis and her son at home and went out and when she returned, she found them lying in his room covered in blood.
Police were contacted, and Francis, who had multiple stab wounds to her chest and abdomen was pronounced dead on the scene, while the suspect, whose wrists were slit was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Centre, Mt Hope.
The suspect, who cannot be identified as he may be eventually be charged with Francis’ murder, remained in hospital under police guard up to late yesterday. He reportedly underwent surgery yesterday and was listed in a stable condition.
When a news team from the T&T Guardian visited the suspect’s community yesterday, several neighbours refused to comment extensively on the incident.
“We don’t want to speculate because we (are) not really sure what went on in that house. We accustomed seeing her coming to him, but we don’t really know her,” two men said as they walked past the suspect’s house.
Although investigators said that Francis, a cashier at Naipaul’s Xtra Foods, was in a relationship with the suspect for almost six months, her common-law husband Nicholas Perez received that news with shock.
“She left her five-year-old daughter with me when she went to work yesterday. I was shocked when I get the call to come and identify her body in Maloney,” an emotional Perez said in a brief interview at the couple’s apartment yesterday.
Perez said that her relatives took custody of the child on Saturday night and the child had not been informed of her mother’s death, up to late yesterday. “She is a bright girl, but we don’t know how she will take the news,” Perez said.
While his family said they were shocked by the news of the “secret” relationship with the suspect, they still described Francis as “friendly, loving and kind” and spoke fondly of their memories of her.
“Sometimes you could live with somebody and still don’t know what they doing when you not around. She always used to like to dress up and go to parties, but he (Perez) was quiet and used to like to stay home,” said a female relative, who asked to remain unidentified.
She claimed that Francis had moved out of the apartment in January after Perez refused to get married to her.
“He told her that they should fix up the apartment before they get married because they (were) already living together. She didn’t like that,” the relative said, as she claimed that Francis moved back late last month.
“Even though we now finding out about this next man. She was always cool and nice with all of us,” she added.
Homicide detectives said that they will interrogate the suspect after he is discharged from hospital later this week. An autopsy will be performed on Francis’ body at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, this morning. Investigations are continuing. This killing has taken the murder toll to 97 for the year.
