In full view of her two-year-old son, a young Hope, East Coast Demerara woman was stabbed to death yesterday morning by her former common-law partner, who later succumbed at a city hospital hours after ingesting poison.
Deoranie Dyal, called ‘Priya,’ 20, was stabbed around 15 times about her body at her father’s Lot 123 Hope Lowlands, East Coast Demerara home. She was subsequently rushed by neighbours to the Dr CC Nicholson Hospital at Nabaclis, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
The suspect, Doodnauth Ramlall, called ‘Naresh,’ 28, who was a fisherman of Lot 324 Hope Lowlands, was arrested by the police at Greenfield Village, also on the East Coast, shortly after the attack.
However, by then he had already ingested poisonous tablets, suspected to be Carbon, and he was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he succumbed around 4.10 pm yesterday.
The fatal attack on Dyal occurred around 10.30 am.
Stabroek News was told that Dyal lived with her father and son in the top flat of the two-storey house at the address, while her brother and his family occupied the bottom flat. Police said Ramlall left the common-law relationship he shared with Dyal about two months ago due to domestic issues.
Nevertheless, he visited Dyal yesterday morning, shortly after which she was heard screaming and he was seen fleeing the house. “Neighbours responded and found her with several suspected stab wounds,” a Guyana Police Force statement said.
‘Things nah wuk’
When Stabroek News visited the village yesterday, a number of relatives and neighbours had gathered at Dyal’s house, where they expressed their shock at the events that unfolded earlier.
The dead woman’s father, Indrapaul Dyal, a farmer, was initially lost for words. He was seen hugging his grandson, while being consoled by relatives and friends. The young child was constantly calling for his mother.
Indrapaul told Stabroek News that the child was from his daughter’s previous relationship. After it did not work out, he said she returned home and later started to date Ramlall. “Them two did live right hay about two or three months because she did guh way with the bai [Ramlall] and then things nah wuk,” he said. “Hear wah happen: Me daughter nice, suh after he left, he covetous,” he added.
He said Ramlall was trying to persuade Deoranie to rekindle their relationship but she refused him. “He nah want wuk. Whole day he does sit down and he gah mind them,” Indrapaul said.
One week ago, he said Deoranie related to him that Ramlall threatened to kill her. “Suh me tell she me go call the police… couple days after, me see he and me nah tell am nothing. Suh me seh, ‘Man, lef am before meh guh,’ yuh understand, and police come pun um again and it guh mek a whole problem,” he said.
Indrapaul said before he left to go to the backdam, he always warned Deoranie not to leave the house. “Meh does warn me daughter, yuh know, nah fuh come out of hay just suh…. He does can’t come around when me deh. Suh, when me left fuh guh backdam now, then he does come hay,” he explained.
He said he was in the backdam with his son when he received the news that Deoranie had been killed. As a result, he rushed to his house, only to discover that his youngest daughter was already dead.
‘Help! Help!’
The dead woman’s sister-in-law, Jennifer, who lived in the bottom flat of the house, said she was in bed relaxing when she heard Deoranie and Ramlall having a conversation. “Me hear somebody talking upstairs and me ah try fuh listen if is he, ’cause normally he does come and them two does gaff. Me seh man them two used to live together, so me ain’t want listen to them conversation and me lef and go bathe me kids them,” she related.
“Done me done bathe them now and come inside fuh wipe them skin. Me hear one scrambling and me hear she holler fuh me, ‘Jennifer! Jennifer!’ And me she, ‘Wam Priya?’ ’Cause remember me lef shock now. Me want fuh know wah happen mek she call fuh me suh. Me she, ‘Wam Priya? Wah happen to yuh?’ And by time me fuh run guh see wah happen now, me see he ah guh fuh run out the gate,” she added.
Jennifer said she then ran upstairs. “When me go up now me see she deh rest back like fuh front like, and like me can’t able fuh face she, me run down back…. the child in the verandah, stand up looking at the mother,” she recounted.
She said two women rushed and picked Deoranie up and took her to the hospital. Jennifer later got a phone call that she had died.
A neighbour said she was cooking in the kitchen when she heard screams. “Like this gal been ah holler long… she just holler ‘Help! Help!’ But by time me coulda run out the kitchen and watch, the gal done fall and the bai done gone,” the woman related.
She said she barely noticed Ramlall running down the stairs and up the street towards his house. “When he done gone, me start holler fuh she but she nah ansa,” she noted.
“Me know she from small…up to last night we gaff in this hammock but nobody know she been go dead this morning,” the woman added.
Meanwhile, at the Ramlall’s house, his brother said he was at the back of the yard when he heard his voice.
“Just like dah this thing happen this morning. Me nah see um fuh the morning… when he walk in hay, he tell me buddy that he bore up he gal and be time me look out me nah see he back. He tek he bicycle and he ride and gone and the police them catch he,” the brother said.
He added that he heard through a friend that Ramlall drank poison. “Me find out from a bai wah happen to um and the bai seh when he been a run ah come, he see like he open ah pack thing and he put in to he mouth and drink am. So me seh he mussy drink something. Me nah know is wah…He had to be he did done drink it when police get he because them seh when they catch he, he fall down and start vomit up,” he added.
