A suspect was held by police in connection with the murder of 77-year-old Danrasie ‘Carmen’ Ganesh, who was clubbed to death on Saturday morning at a Montrose house.
According to Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum, the suspect was arrested in Georgetown but police were still verifying that he was the man captured in the surveillance footage recorded killing the woman at the Montrose property.
Another man was previously arrested for questioning.
The surveillance footage, seen by Stabroek News, showed Ganesh in the yard around 5:30AM picking flowers.
She spent about 20 minutes in the yard, during which time she ventured to the gate and appeared to be speaking to someone.
At about 6:12AM, the killer was observed coming out of the back seat of the parked car in the yard, armed with the spanner that he used to bludgeon Ganesh.
To avoid being seen by neighbours, the killer bent amongst the flowers and grass in the yard as he moved inside the house.
A surveillance camera captured the man in the house at about 6:21AM. He was moving around while he hid from the woman.
At 6:35AM, Ganesh was struck to the head by the suspect and she fell to the ground. The man was seen wrapping a piece of cloth around Ganesh’s neck while he dragged her.
He then dealt her a few more blows with the spanner and he stamped her.
While the helpless victim remained still on the ground, the killer rummaged through documents. He appeared to be opening envelopes and reading the contents.
At one point, the man appeared to be conversing with or questioning the woman based on the the movements of his hands.
He momentarily stooped beside her and stared at her. Relatives believe that he was making sure that she was dead.
The man was also observed taking a snack and drinking juice that was inside the fridge.
A few times he peeked outside the house.
He used a towel and wiped his face and hands before leaving the house.
At 7:13AM, the man left the house. By then, the morning sun was shining brightly and traffic was steady on the public road. Persons were also seen walking on the roadway.
The killer stood in the yard, then wiped his feet with a towel before walking towards the gate.
After he apparently failed to locate the right key amongst the bunch to open the locked gate, he decided to climb over the fence and went onto the road, where he boarded a minibus heading in the direction of Georgetown.
The man appeared empty handed as he came out of the building except for a towel he was carrying.
Meanwhile, relatives are still shocked at the brutality of the crime as they prepare for Ganesh’s funeral.
“Me neva see nobody beat somebody like that,” one of Ganesh’s sons stated.
A post-mortem examination revealed that Ganesh died as a result of strangulation and brain haemorrhaging, one of her daughters noted.
The woman’s family remains adamant that the intention was to kill Ganesh, not burglary. They noted that the house, for which Ganesh was caretaker, had brand new laptops and cordless phones and many other electronics items that were shipped to Guyana by the owners of the property but they were untouched.
