Almost five years after Anjanie Mahdoo was fatally beaten before being dumped in a canal at La Bonne Intention (LBI), East Coast Demerara, her mother remains convinced that her killer is still on the loose because police failed to do enough to even bring charges against him.
The body of Mahdoo, also known as “Pinky,” 29, of Alexander Village, was discovered by a group of sugar workers around 7 am on October 29, 2008, two days after she went missing.
Her mother, Toolsadai Mahdoo told Stabroek News recently that it still grieves her to know that the last moments of her daughter’s life were painful. The woman said that up to now, she is yet to hear from the police about the investigation.
She added that she stopped going to the police after becoming convinced that the ranks investigating the case were not seriously looking into her daughter’s death because the suspect was friendly with them.
She recalled that her daughter left home for her Regent Street workplace and never returned.
Back then, Rebecca Shivdyall, a co-worker of Mahdoo, was the last of her friends to see her alive. She had said that she and `Pinky’ left work after five o’ clock to go shopping for footwear. They went to a shoe store where the deceased purchased a pair of slippers. After they left the store, she said, they began to walk towards the car park but then they parted ways after she (Shivdyall) decided to catch a bus on North Road instead.
Mahdoo’s partner was suspected by her family of being responsible for her disappearance. Toolsadai, in a recent interview with Stabroek News, said that the man was very controlling as he always timed her daughter when she had to go home and always knew what she is wearing when she left the house. The woman said that she suspected that after she parted ways with her co-worker, Mahdoo was contacted by her partner, who also worked in the city and they went to his home at Success, East Coast Demerara, which is not far past LBI.
The man had been held by police but was released after a few days.
While noting that her daughter and the man had been dating for four years, Toolsadai said that the relationship was a rocky one. She explained that the suspect was always in the habit of hitting her daughter when she was not home. One time she asked him why, she recalled, and the man said he answered her phone and found a male caller on the other end of the line.
Toolsadai said the police told her nothing about her daughter’s cellphone and she pointed out that looking at her daughter’s phone records could have given investigators clues about the hours leading up to her death. The woman said that besides the phone records, there must have been forensic evidence as her daughter’s body bore a lot of scratches. She said that she believed that her daughter fought back. The post-mortem examination, she noted, found that her daughter was badly beaten in the head and a hit to the back of her neck caused it to break.
According to Toolsadai, after the body was found, the woman’s partner did not come forward and he later did not even attend her funeral. Until now she said, she has not heard from him.
Concrete evidence
Toolsadai said that she was shocked when she turned up at the Sparendaam Police Station shortly after the body was discovered and was told that she “has to get concrete evidence”.
She questioned how was she going to get this when it was the police who had to do the investigation and who had the resources needed. “I am poor I ain’t get money,” she said sadly, while explaining that she doesn’t have the resources to pursue the matter.
She said that she was also disappointed at the behaviour of the ranks at the Ruimveldt Police Station. “Ruimveldt is very slack. They could have found her sooner,” she said, recalling that she had initially visited the station to report her daughter missing but the ranks were not helpful.
She said that she is disappointed in the police. “Police could have done more but me ain’t got money. They supposed to be looking into it until now but no one ain’t saying nothing,” she said.
According to Toolsadai, Mahdoo’s body was so badly decomposed that on the funeral day, one could not stare at her face for long.
“I hope that one day I will get answers. I pray for that”, she said, while adding that the killer has been left to live his life while she and her relatives are left to grieve.
“I pray for something to come out of this. I really want to know the body who do this,” the woman added, while revealing that she still weeps whenever she thinks of her daughter and will not rest peacefully until she gets answers.
