An elderly woman was found dead with her throat slit in her ransacked home on Tuesday evening, shocking neighbours in the Vryheid’s Lust North community, on the East Coast of Demerara.
The semi-nude body of 68-year-old Sukhdai Ramkilaum, called ‘Mama Rose’ and ‘Rosaline,’ was discovered in a pool of blood in her bedroom, at her Lot 80 Vryheid’s Lust North residence. Ramkilaum, who lived alone, was last seen alive around noon on Monday by a neighbour who visited her. It is suspected that the attacker/s knew the elderly woman, since none of her neighbours recalled hearing anything suspicious.
Her relatives, who noted that Ramkilaum kept gold jewellery in her home, could not say if anything was missing. Her nephew Bisram Balram, who lives door, told Stabroek News that he last saw her on Sunday at home and she looked “strong.”
The following day, Balram said, he and his wife did not see her and it was the same on Tuesday. As a result, on Tuesday evening around 6 pm, his wife decided to call for her, at which point she saw “a substance leaking down” from an area where a bedroom is located.
According to the grief-stricken Balram, his wife realised that it was blood and she alerted him to it when he arrived home shortly after. He said he immediately travelled to the Sparendaam Police Station and ranks accompanied him back to the house.
Prior to the police’s arrival, he stressed, they did not enter the yard. According to Balram, it was the police who opened the gate and the door to the house and found Ramkilaum’s body in the back bedroom. He said that he did not go to see his aunt’s remains since “ah couldn’t handle dat situation.”
Ramkilaum’s brother, Ramdass Karan, who was informed of her death by his niece, went to the house and he saw the body on the floor of the bedroom. Ramkilaum was clad only in a t-shirt. The man said the “whole place was tumble up” but he did not know if anything was missing since the investigating ranks instructed him not to touch anything. He said that the room where she was found was the one that she slept in.
Karan said that as far as he knew, his sister, who had been living in the area for at least 25 years, had no problems with anyone.
Meanwhile, relatives said that despite her age, Ramkilaum was very active. Pointing to her well-kept yard, a relative explained that Ramkilaum single-handedly kept it in that condition. They said that the dead woman, who once sold fish at Industry village, was not a person to be locked up in her house so it was strange when she was not seen.
No strange sounds
Ramkilaum’s house was barred off with police crime scene tape and the gate was locked yesterday morning. Several of the windows and the veranda door were open. It is unclear if this is how the house was when the discovery was made. A large pool of blood was evident beneath the house.
Meanwhile, many of the woman’s neighbours were shocked at her murder, while stressing that they found it strange that no one heard any strange sounds coming from the house. A resident, who lives a stone’s throw away from Ramkilaum, said that he heard nothing strange between Sunday, when he last saw her, and Tuesday night. He suspected that the killer/s was known to the woman.
Another resident was also baffled that neither he nor neighbours heard any strange sounds coming from the house. He, like the others, believed that Ramkilaum was killed during the wee hours of Tuesday morning. “What is even more strange is that this place got plenty dog and none of them ain’t went barking,” he said.
Residents said that there are occasional burglaries in the area and there have been cases in the past when items were stolen from their yards.
Ramkilaum’s death bears similarities to that of 64-year-old Rhampattie Ramsundar, called ‘Auntie Daro,’ who was found dead in her Enmore, East Coast Demerara home on February 15. Ramsundar, who also lived alone, was found with her hands and feet tied, and there were marks of violence about her body. A post-mortem examination later revealed that she died as a result of asphyxiation due to manual strangulation compounded with blunt trauma to the head.
More than half a million dollars, which Ramsundar had collected several days before her death, was missing.
A neighbour reported hearing strange sounds around 3:30 am and said when she looked out she saw a side door on the upper flat open and the lights on.
The woman said she called out to the Ramsundar but there was no answer. When she looked out again about an hour later, the door was closed. The neighbour also said that seeing the open door was not strange because the elderly woman would sometimes use her outside washroom.
After the discovery of Ramsundar’s body, a police tracker dog led investigating ranks to the house of a man who she had reported to the police on several occasions. He and another Enmore resident were later arrested but released on station bail after investigators were unable to find any concrete information linking them to the crime.
