Jennifer Persaud, 41, and her sons Afridi Bacchus, 6, and Jadon Persaud, 18 months, were discovered on September 22 in her bedroom, with stabs wounds and their throats slit. The prime suspect in the triple homicide had been Persaud’s 23-year-old partner, who is the father of her youngest child. He, along with a relative of his, had been taken into custody but were both subsequently released due to insufficient evidence.
“According to the police, they have no concrete evidence… I don’t understand what is happening in this case,” one of the deceased woman’s daughters, Angela, told Stabroek News yesterday.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud had told this newspaper that investigators were awaiting “lab reports.” He explained that the woman and the prime suspect had been having ongoing problems and on many occasions, she had asked the man to leave the home.
Reports were also made to police by the woman, resulting in the man being placed before the courts on several occasions. According to the Crime Chief, some time before she was killed, the woman had asked the man to leave her house.
Asked about this, Angela said her mother had told the family that she was determined to end the relationship because the man was tied up with illegalities that she was unwilling to become involved with. “This time she de tell my grandfather how she done for good… They de fall out because he was smoking weed in she shop and deh selling it to them lil boys round there,” the woman said.
She noted too that her mother had disclosed before her demise that the man was deported some two years ago as a result of his involvement in illegal drugs. She added that the man went to the United States as a teenager.
A source close to the investigation told Stabroek News that reports of the man’s pants being found soaked with blood were false. The source said that the pants had a small drop of dried blood, which could have gotten there while he was living with the woman. The source insisted that even if the blood proves to be that of Persaud, it would be insufficient to lay charges against him because no one can place him at the house prior to the discovery of the body.
‘Never used to tell’
The woman’s daughter said her mother never discussed with her the extent of the abuse but would only say they “fight and cuss.”
“She never used to tell we but the people in the area is talk. One time, he beat she and she run out the shop and he come out and drag her back in by her hair. Another time he kick her to her chest… all of that and still she used to seh that she don’t allow him to take advantage of her… he used to fight her for the key of her own vehicle all to go drink,” Angela relayed.
Angela said her mother and the younger child were cremated on September 30, and at that site and earlier at the funeral parlour, the suspect made appearances. She explained that her sister, while taking photographs, captured images of the man and later while viewing the pictures, they observed suspicious scratches on his neck. “When we went home, we zoom up the picture and we see a big scratch, like a woman scratch,” she stated.
At the parlour, she continued, her father advised the man that he should not visit the cremation site since the family would not appreciate him being there. Despite this, the man went to bid his final goodbye to Persaud and his son.
“They end up having big fight there because them women hold he and slap he up and so. He run for his life that day,” Angela said.
She noted that the suspect reported the assault to the police and indicated that the scratch to his neck was as a result of that.
“He can’t say that though because we have the proof with the pictures from the parlour that he had the scratch before. The scratch was stale,” she posited.
During the funeral proceedings, Angela said, the man gave away no emotion but only stood there with a “dry face. He ain’t even cry, not a tear for his child, he just look guilty,” she opined.
Angela said that the man had intended to send his 18-month-old son to live with his parents in the US. “Mommy used to say she ain’t so stupid to send her child but we hear she was sending him with the man parents when they come in December,” she said, adding that it was very suspicious that the child’s birth certificate was found at the suspect’s current place of abode.
To me, de person who do it got to know this house good because when my father made the discovery, the lights weren’t coming on because the main switch was disconnected. Who gon know fuh do tha?” she questioned.
In addition to this, Angela noted that on the night of the gruesome discovery of the bodies, several opened bottles of Banks Banko Wine were found, and she stated that this is the suspect’s preferred drink.
