A 42-year-old woman and her two children were yesterday morning found burnt to death at her Patentia, West Bank Demerara (WBD) home after she had earlier told neighbours that she would kill herself and burn the house down.
Dead are Donna Headley called ‘Ashanti’ and her children Keon Hilliman, 13, and Denesha Frank, 6, of Lot 2 Patentia, Road End, WBD. Neighbours said that Headley had told them earlier on Friday that she was going to kill herself and burn the house down because she had heard that her reputed husband, who is in Barbados was going to take another woman to that country. While the police were reluctant to say anything, a source said that it looked as though the mother committed suicide.
A neighbour of the deceased woman, Angela Bobb, told Stabroek News that she was awoken at about 12.30 am yesterday by her uncle who shouted that Headley’s house was on fire. She said that upon venturing outside she observed a section of Headley’s home where the children’s bedroom was located, in flames, but strangely there were no screams or calls for help from the occupants.
Other neighbours were alerted and they attempted to battle the fire, but their efforts were in vain as the gas bottle exploded and the flames grew higher and gave off great heat forcing them to back off. They then concentrated their efforts on Bobb’s home which was in danger of catching fire also.
Meanwhile, the police and fire service were alerted but did not arrive until it was too late to do anything. Neighbours said that although they kept calling the woman and the children, they received no answers. “There was no hollering, no moaning, nothing,” they said.
The residents stated that when the fire finally died down and the bodies were removed, the charred and shrunken bodies of the two children were on the ashes of their beds while their mother’s body was in a crouching position behind the front door.
Later yesterday morning shocked residents gathered and discussed the tragedy. Bobb said that earlier on Friday an upset Headley had purchased four packs of cigarettes and “She seh that she hear that [husband’s name] send for some girl.”
“She seh she gon burn down the house and kill she self, and I ask she if she gon left the children foh punish and she seh no. I ain’t tek she serious, me tek the thing as a joke,” Bobb said.
Another neighbour, Shondell King said that Headley too had told her that she was going to kill herself and burn the house down, and added that she had said this before. “She was a normal person but she always complain about she man. We never tek it serious but just tek it foh joke,” she declared.
Neighbours stated that Headley had lived there for three years and was a housewife, who also did knitting for them. They described her as “a nice person” but stated that she was not one to have long conversations with them.
Meanwhile, there was disbelief and sorrow at the home of Headley’s mother, Joycelyn Headley, as relatives gathered after they heard the news yesterday morning.
When this newspaper visited the woman’s East Ruimveldt Housing Scheme home, relatives were pouring in and fighting hard to control their emotions. Joycelyn Headley told Stabroek News that she had learnt of the tragic news when a neighbour came to tell her that she had been informed her daughter’s home had burnt down.
“After she came and told me that the house burn, she came back afterwards and said that the person called her back and said that Donna and the children were in the house and that the parlour was fetching the burnt bodies out the house,” the grieving woman said. Most of the relatives were unable to say exactly when they had last seen Headley, and the dead woman’s mother said that she hadn’t heard from her daughter in quite a while.
The relatives did not want to speculate about the possible circumstances surrounding the deaths of the woman and her children; they had not yet gone to the scene although they were planning to do so.
One of the woman’s friends who heard of her death rushed to the home and cried uncontrollably, saying she knew something like this would have happened. “I know this woulda happen, I know, I know,” the woman screamed, but did not explain further what she meant. Relatives said the woman’s reputed husband was expected in the country later yesterday or early today.
Donna Headley was the eldest of five children. She has another son, 19-year-old Nivon Gomes who lives in New York.
