In addition to the 17 women reported murdered at the end of August there are four cases, though not classified as murder by police, which remain suspicious.
Patricia Beepat, Jairool Rohoman, Indramattie Boladass and Esther Albert (in order of most recent occurrence) lost their lives between January and August this year. Their families have been fighting, what they now realize are futile battles, to have the women’s deaths investigated as murders.
“Wa more it got fuh do?” Asim Rohoman asked. “Wa more? Tell me na? I am a poor man and me can’t afford to do all de running me been doing behind de police… Dem na care wan thing. She done dead and me believe ah murder she get murder but me na in a way to do nothing so me jus’ got to forget me sister.”
Despite repeated reports of abuse in some cases, the availability of witnesses to beatings in others and visible marks of violence on the women’s bodies their deaths were never classified as homicides. Relatives believe that post-mortem examination (PME) results alone decided whether or not they would get justice.
Annie Beharry continues to allege that her sister was abused for years by her husband and believes that the man was involved in Patricia’s death. Patricia, 54, of Canefield Settlement, East Canje was discovered dead on a chair in the lower flat of her home on August 17.
The woman’s relatives had immediately made allegations against Chandi Persaud Beepat but the man denied having anything to do with his wife’s death. When Stabroek News spoke with Chandi he insisted that he never touched his wife.
A PME, according to Beharry, has since revealed that her sister died from haemorrhaging of the brain. The autopsy, Beharry said, also showed that Patricia suffered a fractured skull caused by a blunt object and there were signs of strangulation.
Several days after the woman’s death police had arrested Chandi. However, Beharry said the man was subsequently released on $20,000 station bail. Police, according to her, had explained that they could not hold the man beyond 72 hours without charging him.
“But what I still can’t understand,” a frustrated Beharry told this newspaper, “is why they na re-arrest this man [Chandi] after the PM results.”
Chandi, she said, has since reportedly developed problems of a “mental” nature and has moved to another county where he lives with an older brother.
Last Monday, Beharry further said, an older US-based sibling visited Berbice police and spoke with them about the matter.
Police, according to Beharry, indicated that they did not have any evidence implicating Chandi in his wife’s death.
A senior police officer in ‘B’ Division, who declined to have his name published, has since told Stabroek News that he knows nothing about some of the PME findings which were reported by Beharry.
The report, he said, did reveal that Patricia died from brain haemorrhaging and that she suffered a fractured skull. However, the policeman stressed that the pathologist pointed out that the fracture could have occurred either from a fall or from a hit to the head with a blunt object. He further said that he was not aware of the autopsy revealing that there were signs that Patricia had been strangled.
He also confirmed that Patricia’s relatives visited him last week. However, he pointed out that the dead woman’s relatives are not telling police some of the things he has seen reported in the media. Reports like Patricia being abused before her death were not indicated to police, he said, before adding that, investigations into the matter are still continuing.
Poor investigation
Beharry further said that she and her family were not satisfied with the effort police made in investigating Patricia’s death and insists that the police were informed that the woman was abused.
While performing Patricia’s last rites, she further said, relatives had to go to her Canefield Settlement home to get some of her used clothing for a ritual. It was during this visit that they discovered blood splatters in the upper flat of the house as well as a bloody shirt which they alleged belonged to Chandi.
“But we lapse…when we see this shirt nobody na think to use a plastic bag to pick it up and take it to the police,” Beharry said.
When her sister was first discovered dead, Beharry recalled, the matter was reported to the police station at Reliance. However, it was a member of the Neighbourhood Policing Group, the woman said, who showed up at the crime scene.
“Is days later then police from the Central Police Station [New Amsterdam] take over the case but he tell me that he getting transfer to somewhere else so somebody else going to take the case from him,” Beharry explained.
As far as she is aware police have never fully processed the crime scene at Canefield Settlement. While the investigating officer has told her that they are interviewing neighbours, Beharry said, she is not confident that they will make any progress.
“The last time I talk to that policeman he tell me that he still preparing a file and that the file would be going to the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] but I still waiting,” she stated.
Meanwhile, in the case of 42-year-old Jairool of Gangaram, East Canje an inconclusive PME thwarted charges. Although investigators found sufficient evidence tying Jairool’s husband to her murder, an inconclusive autopsy forced the police to release him, a senior officer had said.
In March, Jairool was found floating in the Canje River, with her body bearing a chop wound on the chin, burns on the back, hand and other parts. Jairool’s long hair had been partly shaven and used to tie her legs together. A canvas sling was also tied around her waist and legs.
The woman’s relatives are convinced that her husband played a hand in her brutal murder and have been questioning why police did not use the incriminating physical evidence found in his home, to charge the man. According to them, pieces of clothing with spatters of blood and a canvas sling matching a piece that was used to tie Jairool’s limbs together was found at the man’s Gangaram, East Canje home, hours after the gruesome discovery.
Her brother, Asim Rohoman, speaking to Stabroek News late last week, said that he has given up hope of getting justice from this system.
“Dem seh is na murder but me know is murder but me is na no police…but is so in this place…poor people does got fuh suffer,” Asim stated.
No case
An autopsy had revealed that Indramattie Boladass died of a heart attack and also found that her hip was fractured and four ribs broken. Relatives had insisted that the heart attack was induced by the beating they believe she suffered at the hands of her husband.
Rampertab Boladass denied beating his wife when Stabroek News had subsequently spoken with him.
The widower allegedly beat Boladass severely on March 2. This allegation has since been supported by several neighbours, other residents and the dead woman’s relatives. A resident, who had requested anonymity, told Stabroek News that it was a neighbour who rushed over to the couple’s Coconut Dam, Cane Grove home that afternoon to “part” the fight.
Despite this Crime Chief Seelal Persaud had said Boladass’s case was closed. “You reported that she [Boladass] died of a heart-attack,” Persaud had said when questioned. “She died of a natural cause so what is there to investigate?”
Hamawattie Singh, speaking with this newspaper last week about her sister’s death, said that she no longer had any fight left in her. There is no point, she stated, in fighting with the police to do something that they clearly don’t want to.
“I guess I like they [the police] said the case is closed for my sister,” Singh stated.
In the case of Esther Albert, it was initially reported that she had fallen from her stairs following a drinking spree with her husband, Daveanand Albert, and was taken to the Skeldon Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. However, results of a PME showed that she died from manual strangulation.
Apparently not realizing that the woman might have been murdered, the man’s mother sent him to the Springlands Police Station to report his wife’s death. He never got there and has since disappeared.
Reports are that Albert’s husband hit her with a broom and dealt her several slaps. He also reportedly “choked” her before pushing her down the stairs. According to a relative, the woman started to bleed from a wound in her head. The man then picked her up and tried to wash off the blood and put her on the bed. She remained there all night groaning in pain.
Early the following morning, after the woman appeared to be unconscious the man sent his 12-year-old son to call his mother who lives nearby to see what had happened and to bring some methylated sprits to try to revive her.
There has been no word since from either police or the woman’s relatives about the whereabouts of her husband or the status of investigations into her death.
