A mother’s worst nightmare became a reality yesterday afternoon, after her reputed husband acted on a repeated threat to take the lives of his two younger children and then commit suicide.
Loren Banarsee called Donna received the shock of her life, when she returned to her Lot 18 Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara home around 4.15 pm to discover her reputed husband hanging from the roof of the bedroom, while her two youngest children were lying dead on a bed beneath his hanging body.
Dead are 61-year-old Simon Boodhoo, his son Samuel Boodhoo, 12, and his six-year-old daughter Krystal.
Banarsee said when she returned to her home yesterday afternoon, she was greeted by an unusual silence. She said that she made the gruesome discovery when she entered one of the bedrooms in the home.
According to her when she entered the bedroom, “I see de father hang heself deh and den de two children lying down frothing”. She also observed a whitish substance coming from her daughter’s eyes. She also said that there was vomit on the bed.
The mother said after making the discovery she rushed to the phone to make a call but was unable to make the call because her hands kept trembling. She ran over to her neighbours, who she said rushed over and who proceeded to contact the police at the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station. The police came and they supervised the removal of the bodies she said.
The grieving mother said that when she had left for work at 7 o’clock only her daughter was awake. She said that just before she left the house she was teaching her daughter to write. Her last memory of her daughter was her repeatedly saying, “Bye bye, mummy, bye bye”. She said her son and her reputed husband were asleep. The two usually slept together while she and Krystal slept together, she said.
According to Banarsee, her reputed husband was an abusive man “who would threaten to kill me and meh children” but she didn’t expect him to do what he did. They would get into regular arguments, some of which resulted in her having items thrown at her or being beaten by him.
The most recent argument occurred on Friday evening, when she said he told the children that they were the cause of the disagreements. The distressed woman said, “he gat to be totally ignorant and mad to kill his children. If he deh do it to heself is okay, but not taking dem two children. Dey ain even know nuthin about life.”
Banarsee said her husband was a pensioner who stayed at home. He was most recently employed at a resort where he worked for two months as a barman, but subsequently left the job. According to her, he had lived in the USA for some time and they had a long-distance relationship. When he returned to Guyana to live in 1996, they continued the relationship and the next year she gave birth to Samuel, she said. They previously had two older sons together, aged 25 and 23, who both live in the family home and who are both employed.
According to her, her two young children were close to their father, as he would care for them while she was at work. She explained that whenever he had to care for the children, he would make porridge for them, and it is her suspicion that he put something in the porridge.
Banarsee said Samuel had just written the National Grade Six Assessment exam and would have started attending the Vreed-en-Hoop Community High School in September.
She recalled that on Wednesday her sister had asked her why she did not make a report to the police concerning her reputed husband’s behaviour; something she now regrets not doing. According to her, maybe if she had listened to her sister, her children would still be alive today.
And in spite of her agony, Banarsee said she was grateful that her two older sons were not at home, as she was convinced that they might have all been dead.
Meanwhile, her 23-year-old son Richard Boodhoo briefly recounted to Stabroek News how his father would abuse his mother and even him when he was a child. He recalled once when he was younger, his father hit two of his teeth out of his mouth.
Richard said that in recent times, whenever his father attempted to hit his mother he would intervene. He, too, was distraught at the deaths of his younger siblings, who, he said, did not deserve to die the way they did.
Police are investigating the matter.
