Two women were brutally stabbed to death early yesterday morning at Smythfield, New Amsterdam and an overseas-based suspect was arrested at a house in the area.
Dead are 24-year-old Nekecia Rouse, a part-time teacher at a primary school in the area and her sister-in-law, 18-year-old Alexis ‘Keisha’ George.
Both bodies were found around 6.30 am with wounds to their necks while Rouse’s body also bore stabs to the left ear and right shoulder.
Both women resided in the house where the stabbing took place but George’s body was discovered in a yard obliquely opposite while Rouse’s remains were found in the kitchen. They were both covered in blood.
At the time of the discovery Rouse’s four-year-old daughter, Crystal Stephenson, was in the house trying to answer calls from a cellular phone while George’s daughter, one-year-old Amatoya Rouse was lying in a bed. They were both unharmed.
Dolly Joseph, the woman in whose yard George’s body was found told Stabroek News that at around 6:30 am she sent her 14-year-old nephew into the yard to take a bath for church. She said while going down the stairs he saw the woman’s feet and ran back up and raised an alarm.
Upon checking, the woman found George’s bloodied body in a crouching position under a tree braced on an old stove. The police were contacted and arrived promptly at the scene and tried to gain entry into the house to check on the children but it was tightly shut.
June Joseph, Rouse’s mother, a COPS security guard who was at work at a wharf under the Canje Bridge told this newspaper that she got a call from her sister at around 6:45 am that “me daughter-in-law get chop.”
She arrived at the scene shortly after and saw George’s body in the yard. She then opened the front door with the keys and entered with the police not realizing that her daughter was dead until the shocking and gruesome discovery was made in the kitchen.
This newspaper learnt that Rouse had gone out to party earlier with her friends at Sher’s Night Club and police reports are that she had returned home at around 3 am.
It is unclear how the double murder took place but police sources said that they are working on the theory that the suspect, Rouse’s ex-boyfriend, a United States-based Guyanese who is retired from the US Army may have been lurking nearby for her to return home.
There is also the suggestion that George must have heard the commotion and left her bed to investigate at which time she was attacked.
Traces of blood were seen on the front stairs from where she fled and on the street leading to the neighbour’s yard. She apparently was unable to scream for help owing to the wound to her neck.
Police said that the back door leading to the kitchen was securely bolted and they believe that the suspect may have shut the front door behind him.
George’s reputed husband, Travis Rouse has been residing in Trinidad for the past year. She left her Angoy’s Avenue home to live with his mother last December.
Joseph said her daughter’s friends – who were giving statements to the police yesterday –related to her that her daughter was having a good time at the party. She said they told her that they went home earlier and left her at the club.
Meanwhile, Deon Thomas, the head of the Smythfield Community Policing Group said that they had stopped patrolling the area during the nights about four months ago because they were not properly equipped.
He said the Ministry of Home Affairs had promised to provide equipment to them but up to now they have not even received a “torchlight battery.”
This attack is the latest in a string in recent months. Last week Charles Anthony Woolford of 2041 Humming Bird Street, Festival City, North Ruimveldt appeared in court on a charge of murdering his beautician wife Latoya Conway Woolford on February 8. She was also stabbed to death.
