A Herstelling carpenter was battered to death in his home early yesterday morning.
The police and the family of Nathan Persaud, 43, of Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, have ruled out robbery as a motive for his murder.
A police statement said Persaud was found around 10am in his home with wounds to his head. Additionally, two hammers, a knife, and a clay brick were found at the scene of the murder.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum stated that nothing indicates that the motive was robbery and the police are currently pursuing a suspect.
“It was a cold-blooded murder,” said one of Persaud’s three sons, who lived with him.
Persaud was home alone when he was attacked.
His sons were baffled as to how their father was brutally murdered during the daylight and no one around was alerted and went to his assistance.
One resident, who asked not to be identified, told Stabroek News that he heard “hollering” but didn’t pay it any heed.
“This morning when I wake up around 9:45AM… we [him and his mother] hear the hollering and my landlord come down and I go outside. We hear a scuffling and more hollering but we ain’t take it for anything ’cause we know he got three sons, so we thought that it was them had some, you know,” he recounted.
He added that eventually he saw a man emerge from Persaud’s home.
“We ain’t see anything but the dog them keep barking, so I go outside and sit on the veranda. After about 10 minutes, I see this man walk out the door and come to the gate and salute me and walk down the road. By that time the dogs didn’t stop barking and I notice the front door open, so I start to get suspicious,” the man added.
At that point, he alerted some other neighbours, who also became suspicious, and they proceeded to check the man’s house. He said when they arrived at the gate and peeked through the door, they saw Persaud’s lifeless body on the ground.
One of Persaud’s sons, who did not want to be named, recalled returning to find his father’s dead body surrounded by a pool of blood. “I get a phone call from me grandmother saying that he [Persaud] phone ringing out and I know one of me brother had class so I rush home around 11:30 and that’s where I find the body,” he said.
“That man beat he bad, bad. You coulda see all his hands were broke and all the lash on his head,” he added, as he recalled noticing the clay brick and a broken hammer near to his father’s body.
He recalled seeing two separate pools of blood, one around Persaud’s head and another away from his body. While there was speculation that Persaud was a victim of a robbery, given that he was known as a kind and friendly man, his son said he was convinced it was not. “…And this is not a robbery. There was four laptops in the house, four, and none of them were hiding, they were all in plain sight and he [the killer] only took away one. How is that a robbery? Obviously he woulda carry away the rest of the laptops and he money but none of them things were touched,” he added.
Some neighbours said while several people would visit the house because one of Persaud’s sons would make CDs to sell, a strange man was noticed around the area enquiring about Persaud.
