Soured relationship seen behind murder of Trinidad accountant

(Trinidad Guardian) A 31-year-old ac­coun­tant and moth­er of one was shot and killed by two masked men armed with gun when they in­vad­ed her St Al­bans Quar­ry Road, Va­len­cia yes­ter­day morn­ing.

John Hood, fa­ther of the de­ceased told Guardian Me­dia that he be­lieved that a re­la­tion­ship that had gone sour was re­spon­si­ble for his daugh­ter’s life.

Hood told Guardian Me­dia that be­tween 8.15 am and 8.30 am yes­ter­day, his daugh­ter Joanne gave him her 18-month-old ba­by to hold and told him “I am go­ing to make break­fast.”

He said he went down­stairs in the gallery of his house and that while there play­ing with his grand­child, he was ap­proached by two gun­men whose faces were cov­ered with masks.

He said they both point­ed their guns at him and an­nounced a hold-up be­fore or­der­ing him in­side the house.

“I fol­lowed their in­struc­tions, hold­ing on to the child very tight­ly,” he said.

He added: “They asked that I get on the floor, which I did pan­ick­ing in the process when my daugh­ter Joanne, not re­al­is­ing what was tak­ing place, came down.”

He said the gun­men ap­proached his daugh­ter and asked her for mon­ey and jew­ellery.

With a gun point­ing to her head, Hood said they asked him to take the child out­side and he was ac­com­pa­nied by one of the gun­men.

“My daugh­ter was asked to lie on the floor and the oth­er gun­man stayed with her in the liv­ing room. I heard two shots fired, the men left the house on foot and walked away in­to the near­by for­est,” he said.

“I re­turned in­side the house on­ly to see my daugh­ter ly­ing face down in the liv­ing room in a pool of blood and two gun­shots wounds to her back. She was mo­tion­less.”

Hood said he screamed for help.

A rel­a­tive who lives close by heard the scream­ing and loud ex­plo­sion and rushed to the as­sis­tance of Hood.

The dis­traught fa­ther told Guardian Me­dia that when the Va­len­cia Po­lice ar­rived, his daugh­ter was tak­en by po­lice to the San­gre Grande hos­pi­tal, where she suc­cumbed to her in­juries.

Hood said he be­lieved that the in­ci­dent was not a rob­bery but a hit on his daugh­ter, as the gun­men left with­out tak­ing the jew­ellery or any mon­ey.

He de­scribed his daugh­ter as a “very hum­ble and nice child” who fre­quent­ed the church reg­u­lar­ly and nev­er like lim­ing.