Police were up to last evening questioning a suspect in connection with the murder of RK security guard Simone Coleridge.
Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee said he understood that the man was being questioned and if there is enough evidence to level a charge this would be another breakthrough for police for this year. “If this proves to be the real perpetrator this will be a breakthrough,” Rohee said, while addressing the media about the major accomplishments made by the Guyana Police Force so far this year.
A post-mortem examination conducted on the woman’s body has revealed that she died as a result of asphyxiation due to compression injuries to the neck and suffocation compounded by blunt cranial trauma. “She was strangled and then hit,” Crime Chief Seelall Persaud explained yesterday.
Coleridge was discovered dead by a nurse aide early Wednesday morning. Her hands and feet were bound and newspaper stuffed into her mouth, which was also gagged. Relatives, who identified her body, said Coleridge’s face bore wounds they could not bear to look at.
At the time Coleridge was attacked, she was on duty at Uncle Eddie’s, a privately operated senior citizens’ home located in Tucville. The senior citizens’ home was robbed of several electrical appliances by the attackers. But police later recovered the stolen articles in an abandoned house in the Tucville area.
Coleridge, relatives had said, was assigned to the location by the security firm for less than a year. The firm yesterday claimed it had offered Coleridge a transfer but she insisted on continuing on.
Coleridge’s relatives had expressed their belief that the woman might have recognized her attacker. Carlotta D’Oliveira explained that her sister had related a confrontation she had with a man earlier this year. The man, armed with a pitch fork, according to D’ Oliveira, was stealing from Uncle Eddie’s home some time during February and her sister had confronted him.
D’Oliveira told Stabroek News her sister was forced to deal with a similar situation last year end. Both matters, according to the woman, were reported to the security firm but no effort was made to transfer, provide assistance to or arm Coleridge. When she approached owner Roshan Khan about her concerns on Thursday, D’Oliveira said he failed to answer her questions. Khan, according to her, also indicated that he was only willing to pay $100,000 towards Coleridge’s funeral.
Repeated efforts made to contact Khan have been futile. However, in a press release issued yesterday the security firm said “despite an offer to remove her after a theft there [Uncle Eddie’s], and even to close the security contract with the Home, she insisted on working there for she felt comfortable working in the building and also serving the inmates. It was her way of contributing to humanity while earning a living.”
RK Security further stated that it was prepared to support the family in any way possible and “will stand the cost of a decent funeral, or contribute substantially to assist if the family wants the most expensive one.” Benefits refunded by the National Insurance Scheme for the funeral will stay with the family, RK Security said, and an advertisement offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the killers is being prepared.
Coleridge, RK said, was covered by a $1 million accidental, non-contributory insurance, which provided 24-hour coverage on the job and off the job.
Contacted about the firm’s claims last evening, D’Oliveira said she was not sure whether her sister was offered a transfer to another location. However, she maintained that even if Coleridge chose to remain at the location RK Security “was duty bound” to explain the situation and continue to transfer “for her own good. When I saw Roshan Khan on Thursday he told me that my sister had asked him to remain at Uncle Eddie’s Home,” D’Oliveira said last evening. “I can’t tell if she did or did not refuse to be transferred. She is no longer here to verify that but I feel that as a responsible employer RK should have explained the situation in detail to my sister…maybe she didn’t grasp the danger of the situation…”
