T&T community shocked at murder of housewife

Savitri Mohammed

(Trinidad Guardian) The gruesome murder of Gasparillo housewife Savitri Mohammed yesterday traumatised her community.
As family and friends gathered around Mohammed’s Bonne Aventure Road home hoping to get answers yesterday, a male relative was being questioned by Homicide detectives.
Many of them gasped in shock after learning that her killer had bounded her hands and legs and gagged her before slitting her throat.
Mohammed’s husband Sadiq Mohammed, 43, told police he left her home around 10 am as he had business at the bank. When he returned around noon he found the shocking scene of his wife’s blood-soaked body on their bed. Sadiq contacted Gasparillo police, who arrived and took him the Gasparillo Health Centre before taking him to record his witness statement. Investigators said there was no evidence of forced entry into the couple’s home, nor did it appear anything was stolen. However, they were yet to determine a motive for her murder. Neighbours said they neither heard nor saw any commotion at the house.
The victim’s brother, Glenn Caran, told the T&T Guardian Sadiq called them around midday, saying that he had arrived home and found his wife dead.
Caran said they were told both her hands and feet were tied, her mouth gagged and she was blindfolded and her throat slit. He said when he arrived at the house, police were already on the scene so he was not able to enter.
Unable to think of a reason for his sister’s murder, he said Mohammed and Caran lived a quiet life without any problems.
“The had a really quiet life. They never had any big quarrels to the point that they would want to split up. I never in this life or in a dream thought that this would have happened to her. She never complained of anything because when she comes by me, she usually tells us all her business,” Caran said.
“This life is really unpredictable. I used to say that there was a reason for every murder, but now I don’t know.”
The story of a loving couple was also given by Sadiq’s sister Farida Mohammed, who said they had been happily married for 15 years. Now with Mohammed gone, she said her brother faces a tough life.
“All he had was her because they did not have any children. Both of them lived real good. They never used to quarrel and always supported each other,” Farida said.
Mohammed’s elder sister, Evelyn Sookram, said it was just Sunday they last spoke, when the siblings gathered at their mother’s home to celebrate Mother’s Day.
Sookram said they had made plans to spend the yesterday together, but had to postpone them because she had foreign visitors coming to her house. She said she got a feeling something was wrong when she felt someone touch her during her sleep and had a strong feeling yesterday that she was forgetting something. She said within 10 minutes of that feeling, she was heartbroken by the news of her sister’s murder.

Savitri Mohammed
Even though several women’s organisation such as the Powerful Ladies of T&T (PLOTT) and First Ladies and Spouses of Caribbean Community have heightened their advocacy for the protection of women, 2017 has seen the violent murders of several women and even young girls.