Trinidad: Children rescued from house with three corpses were blood-soaked and starving

CSI officers at the scene of the triple murder at Clarke Road, Penal on Thursday. (Trinidad Guardian photo)
CSI officers at the scene of the triple murder at Clarke Road, Penal on Thursday. (Trinidad Guardian photo)

(Trinidad Guardian) The two chil­dren found in their Penal home with three corpses on Thurs­day were blood-soaked and starv­ing, accord­ing to their grand­fa­ther Dipraj Ra­goo­nanan.

Ra­goo­nanan’s com­ment con­tra­dict­ed that of the po­lice first re­spon­ders, who claimed the chil­dren appeared to be well-fed and clean when they were res­cued.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre yesterday, Dipraj, 72 said he cried uncontrol­lably when he saw the chil­dren.

He said the two chil­dren, an eight-month-old ba­by boy and a three-year-old girl, were starv­ing and dehy­drat­ed.

“They were giv­en IV flu­ids at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal…we left there late [Thursday night] because they were see­ing about them.”

“The lit­tle girl does call me Nana and she told me ‘Nana, Nana I try­ing to wake up mum­my for tea but she not wak­ing up’…my heart broke…I start to cry. If you see them state…the clothes mess up with blood and stuff…their hands and faces,” Dipraj said.

Dipraj, who is still wait­ing for the au­top­sies to be done on the bod­ies of his daugh­ter Shelly-Ann Ragoonanan, 43, and her hus­band, Wazir Mo­hammed, 57, and Mo­hammed’s broth­er, Naz­im, 52, said po­lice told him their throats were slit. Po­lice said on Thurs­day that the vic­tims were shot some­time on Sun­day.

The de­com­pos­ing bod­ies were dis­cov­ered on Thurs­day at about 3 pm at their home at Clarke Road in Pe­nal.

The au­top­sies were done yesterday at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre (FSC).

The hor­rif­ic dis­cov­ery was made by their old­er son Vishard Mo­hammed, 21.

Dipraj said he did not have much to do with Ra­goo­nanan’s hus­band and his fam­i­ly but de­scribed her as a kind-heart­ed per­son.

“She was re­al­ly a good per­son…very qui­et…they just would drop her off by me and come back for her. She nev­er worked too as she had no cause to…her hus­band came from a mon­ey fam­i­ly.”

Dipraj said Vishard and him went to the house af­ter Vishard com­plained to him that he failed numerous times to con­tact both his par­ents.

“When we went the gate was locked and the boy jumped the wall and went in the house…the door was open and that’s when he saw the bod­ies rot­ting and the chil­dren among the bod­ies… My heart broke…I start­ed to cry to see the chil­dren in the state they were in,” Dipraj said.

While no mo­tive was es­tab­lished for the Pe­nal mur­ders, in­ves­ti­ga­tors are prob­ing whether Mohammed’s job as a scrap-iron and used truck parts deal­er had any­thing to do with it. How­ev­er, they said it did not ap­pear that there was a rob­bery.