(Trinidad Express) A 27-year-old Rio Claro mother of three was chopped to death near her home on Thursday.
Crystal Beharry, a gardener and Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) employee, of Agostini Village, was found some 300 feet in the bushes opposite her house.
The body was discovered by a search party of relatives, police and hunters.
A suspect in the killing, a 21-year-old man, has gone into hiding, police said. The murder toll for the year is now 207.
Investigators are probing a dispute over a house as a possible motive for the murder.
Beharry’s sister, Julie Beharry, wept yesterday as she recalled her sister told her that her life had been threatened on previous occasions.
“She told me she got a lot of threats where she lived. She told me that about a year ago she and her son were hiding in a room from someone who was trying to break down the door. A few weeks ago, someone stole all of her jewelry. She stayed there because she wanted a family life, but her life was in danger,” said Julie Beharry.
The family told the Express that on Thursday, Beharry’s eight-year-old son, Antonio Contrero, returned home from vacation classes around 2 p.m. He asked his father, Ronald Contrero, where his mother was and he did not know, and told the child to look for her.
Beharry’s son went into a garden where Beharry had planted shadon beni, but could not find her.
The family raised an alarm, and contacted police officers of the Rio Claro Police Station, and a search party went into the bushes to search for her.
The search party found her slippers and a water bottle near the garden, and some 300 feet into the forested terrain Beharry’s body bearing multiple chop wounds was found. “Her hands were crossed above her face as she tried to defend herself”, her sister cried.
Beharry’s brother, Devin Beharry, who was among the search party who found the body said: “It was a perverted scene. She was in her underwear. The person tried to make it look like she was raped.”
Julie Beharry said her sister was ambushed since she had made plans for that evening with her shortly before she was found dead.
“Just an hour and a half before, I talked to her. She told me she was going in her garden and she would call me after she came back. She was coming over to spend the night by me. I was waiting to hear from her. I get a call that they find her dead”, the sister said.
Four years ago, Beharry’s father-in-law, Rudolph Contrero, was also hacked to death in Rio Claro.
Rudolph Contrero, 65, was found on July 11, 2009, with several chop wounds, about his body. His head was almost severed, and his killers had sliced the veins behind his two feet, leaving him to bleed to death, police had said.
Relatives had said then they were clueless as to why anyone would want to kill him.
An autopsy was performed on Beharry’s body yesterday at the Forensic Sciences Centre.
Acting Cpl Mohammed of the Rio Claro CID is continuing investigations.
