Over a year and a half after the murder of his common-law wife, investigators have finally taken a statement from Sergeant Colin Bailey, while telling him the probe is still active.
Sirmattie Ramnaress, a 36-year-old businesswo-man, was found dead on the morning of August 31, 2013 with a stab wound and injuries to her head and body in the garage of her Diamond home. While petrol was strewn all over her house, it was the bond at the back of the yard that was set alight and destroyed. The woman’s body was discovered after the fire service had been called about the fire.
An autopsy later determined that she died as a result of a ruptured spleen and brain haemorrhaging.
Bailey told Stabroek News during a recent interview that about three weeks ago he was invited to CID Headquarters to give a detailed statement, including about his 21-year relationship with Ramnaress as well as his whereabouts on the day that she was found dead.
He said that he arrived at the police location after 10 in the morning and never left until around 5 pm the same day. This is the first time he would have given a statement to the police.
Asked why it took so long for him to provide a statement, Bailey opined that the police were concentrating on getting statements from her relatives and wanted a detailed statement from him. He said too that it would appear that a more experienced team of investigators has now been assigned the case.
Noting his desire to move on with his life and the fact that talking about Ramnaress opens “old wounds,” Bailey said that the only update he has gotten from investigators is that the file is now at CID and that ranks are working on getting statements from other persons. He said the rank who took his detailed statement indicated that “the case is still active and that they were looking for clues.”
The police had said the ransacking of Ramnaress’s house appeared staged as part of an effort to make it look like she was killed during a robbery.
Ramnaress was very security-conscious and had surveillance cameras all around her home. Those who knew her said before she opened her electronic gate, she always first checked the cameras to identify visitors. It is suspected that she must have known her killer(s) and let the person(s) in. Surveillance footage from her master bedroom went missing and it is suspected that whoever stole it would have had intimate knowledge of its location since it was kept in a secured place.
According to Bailey, it hurts him to know that people still believe he killed Ramnaress and he noted that the ordeal had left a “stigma” attached to him. He spoke of his own colleagues pointing fingers at him but said he tries his best to ignore the comments made.
“Why aren’t they taking me out of the picture? I should not be in it… I have nothing to worry about,” he stressed. “There are people who have a whole picture of what’s up. I still believe that if they investigate in-depth and follow certain things, they will come up with something,” he added.
He said that while he wants to press the police so that he can get closure, he fears that he could become a target. “I don’t know what the police doing but I sometimes wonder if I go and fight, if these people would want to come behind me,” he further said.
He insisted that police have enough to work with and pointed out that the woman’s alleged fiancé, who lives overseas, had given enough conflicting information to warrant further questioning. The man had given a statement to the police.
Bailey, who had provided evidence to substantiate his long-term relationship with Ramnaress, said he knew the “so-called fiancé” to be the woman’s business partner.
The man, who lives in the United States, had indicated that he was in possession of a copy of surveillance footage, sent via a feed, from Ramnaress’s home. It is unclear if a copy of this was ever handed over to investigators.
Suspicion was also cast on another business associate, who may have been acquainted with all the security features of the businesswoman’s house.
Bailey told Stabroek News that whoever killed Ramnaress had to be well known to her as the woman never allowed any and everybody into her property. He said too that in order to access the yard the electronic gate had to be opened by someone inside and it would have been highly unlikely for someone to jump the fence or “rush in” without being heard or seen.
Bailey added that the property is now unoccupied and plans are in train to put the building up for sale. He made it clear that since the woman’s death, he did not fight for any of her assets but instead had handed everything over to her relatives.
