Repeated death threats from a man who had already chopped one member of a Moleson Creek family did not move police into action until a woman was found in her kitchen with her throat “cut open”.
Jennifer Thomas, 49, was home alone when she was reportedly attacked by her son-in-law some time before 6.15pm on Tuesday. The alleged perpetrator was subsequently discovered in his house (about a three-minute walk away) with wounds to his wrists and behind his ankles.
In a press release yesterday afternoon police said that the perpetrator is suspected to have ingested a poisonous liquid in an attempt to commit suicide. This newspaper later learnt from Moleson Creek residents that the wounds to the man’s wrist and ankles were self inflicted.
The suspect has since been admitted a patient to the New Amsterdam Hospital where he remained under police guard up to press time.
Thomas, police further said, was discovered in a pool of blood by her daughter at about 6.15pm.
Jacklin Thomas told Stabroek News yesterday afternoon that sometime around 6pm on Tuesday she left her home which is some distance from her mother’s in the same community. The community consists of approximately 10 households which are located some distance apart.
When she arrived, Jacklin recalled, she saw blood at the bottom of the house and she started calling out to her mother but got no answer. As she called out to her mother Jacklin started to make her way into the house and then to the kitchen.
It was there that the woman said she saw horror that will never leave her memory. Jennifer Thomas was lying face up on the kitchen floor with her throat “cut open”. Jacklin, the agony of the memory painted on her face, started to scream.
At first, she said, she thought her mother was still alive and she rushed to the body and tried to revive her. Her mother’s clothes were somewhat dishevelled, she recalled, and after she really looked she realized that Thomas was already dead.
Her brother-in-law, Jacklin alleged, attacked her mother and then tried to take his own life. The man, according to her, had been released from prison recently after serving an eight-month sentence for chopping her brother.
There was an ongoing family feud, she explained, and after the perpetrator was released from prison their relations further deteriorated. The man, Jacklin said, wanted to resume a relationship with her sister but the family opposed this because of his past actions and behaviour.
“He used to threaten all of we all the time,” Jacklin told Stabroek News yesterday.
The man, according to Jacklin, has been threatening the entire family for a long time now on a frequent basis. On Tuesday, after her father left Jennifer Thomas alone, the man finally got his opportunity execute one of his many threats.
Widower Noel Thomas is a farmer. On Tuesday afternoon, he told this newspaper, he left his wife home alone. He said that he had gone to his farm to do some work and “get a few things”.
The man said he returned home only to learn from his relatives that Jacklin had discovered his wife dead in their home.
For weeks, Noel said, he and other relatives had made reports to the Moleson Creek Police Outpost. The man explained that nothing was done about these reports but “when they hear that somebody get kill they reach here quick, quick…they coulda avoid this”.
On one occasion when family members went to report a threat, Noel recalled, they were told by a rank that he was the only person there and could not leave the location unmanned. As far as he knows, Noel said, there are only two ranks at the outpost at any given time.
“Nobody was doing anything,” the distressed man said.
