The lifeless body of an 82-year-old blind woman, with her hands bound and her privates exposed was discovered in her South Ruimveldt Gardens home on Monday night and a 14-year-old relative has since been taken into custody.
Dead is Margaret St. Juste of Lot 418 Cane View Avenue. A post-mortem examination is to be conducted today.
Police said in a press release last evening that they were investigating the circumstances surrounding the pensioner’s death adding that relatives found the woman’s body around 8.30 pm lying on a bed in her home with her hands tied behind her back. The body was taken to the Lyken’s Funeral home.
Reports reaching Stabroek News are that the teen has given conflicting reports and had told relatives that when he arrived at the home earlier in the day, she was not in the position she was found in. A search of the premises however unearthed no breakage and as such he was detained and several other relatives questioned by police yesterday.
Police sources said that there was nothing in the woman’s room to suggest that she was strangled or that there was a struggle.
When Stabroek News visited the area yesterday residents expressed shock at the woman’s passing. The woman, neighbours said, kept to herself. No one reported hearing anything suspicious in the hours leading up to the discovery of the woman’s body.
At the home several relatives were gathered discussing the tragedy.
Speaking to this newspaper, her foster daughter Marlene Lindore said that St. Juste, who had no children, has been blind for the last 22 years or so and someone would usually take care of her.
However for the past two weeks that person was unable to come and the chores were split between Lindore’s daughter and 14-year-old nephew. He would wash up the wares she used, she said.
Recalling the events of the day, the woman said that her daughter left her at home alive at well sometime after 1 pm and went to the doctor. The teen came home sometime after three and went into the woman’s room which is located at the back of the house and collected her wares.
She said she later came home and she and her two daughters watched a 7:30 pm newscast. All this while, the teen was in the house.
She said that shortly after it had ended her daughters when into the room to check on her but instead made the gruesome discovery.
According to the woman, St. Juste was discovered at the end of the bed with a sheet thrown over her. Her hands were bound and the red and white dress she was wearing was pulled up exposing her private parts.
Lindore added that a box that was usually in the youth’s room was found in the woman’s bedroom. When asked about it, she said that he told her that he had put it there. Prior to this he said that he had only gone into the room to remove the woman’s used dishes.
The woman told Stabroek News last evening that the teen is in police custody assisting with investigations.
Lindore said that her foster mother’s death came as a great shock to her adding that “I never expected to find her in that state”.