Police in Jersey City Heights in the United States are investigating the motive behind the stabbing to death on Thursday of a Guyanese woman who was expected to travel to these shores the following day.
According to a report in the Jersey Journal, 45-year-old Shrimatie Parasram was stabbed to death in her home on Thursday and investigators have not determined the motive, but have since learnt that she was expected to travel to her native Guyana early Friday morning.
Parasram was found face down between the kitchen and dining room on the home’s first floor by her 16-year-old daughter as she returned home from afterschool activities, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 5.03 pm.
The report stated that an autopsy performed on Friday morning at the state Regional Medical Examiner’s Office in Newark determined Parasram died of multiple stab wounds that penetrated her heart and lungs, DeFazio said. The medical examiner also found she suffered blunt force trauma to her face, the prosecutor noted.
The Jersey Journal said that Parasram’s home had been padlocked by police and on Friday evening her husband, Hardeo Parasram, stood on the sidewalk as friends and family members stopped to offer condolences. He said his wife came to the United States in 1981 on the Fourth of July.
“I have no idea what happened,” Hardeo Parasram, who was at work when his daughter called to relay the grim news, was quoted as saying.
He said his daughter had been very quiet since then and the only items taken from the home were his wife’s cell phone and wallet.
“She was always a happy person,” he said of his wife.
Hardeo Parasram migrated to the United States 23 years ago and works detailing cars. The couple also has a 20-year-old daughter and the man told the Journal that his wife had not worked for several years. She was expected to stay in Guyana for a week visiting their families.
“I want justice done,” the New Jersey newspaper reported him as saying, while he added, “I want them to pay for what they have done.”
Shrimatie Parasram drove her daughter to school Thursday morning and was fully dressed when she was discovered by her daughter at the bloody murder scene in the late afternoon, DeFazio said.
There were no signs of forced entry and the murder weapon has not been found, the prosecuter stated. Investigators have conducted numerous interviews with family members and neighbours but a motive for the slaying has not yet been determined.
