Hours after being arrested, the wife of slain Herstelling carpenter Nathan Persaud on Friday night confessed to planning his murder and subsequently hiring the killer who remains at large, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum said yesterday.
Stabroek News was told that a threat to have her removed from her home, once a property dispute between the two was settled by the High Court, was the motive behind the killing.
Blanhum, when contacted, said police have an indication of the assailant’s identity and they are looking for him.
Persaud, 43, of Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, was murdered in his home last Thursday morning. Neighbours had heard screams coming from the man’s home but did not venture over to see if anything was wrong.
While a laptop was stolen from Persaud’s home, both the police and his children were not convinced that robbery was the motive for his death.
Persaud was alone when his assailant entered the home and battered him with a brick and a hammer sometime between 9.30 am and 10 am.
A post-mortem examination had revealed that he was hit 20 times. This number was smeared in blood on a nearby refrigerator.
A source close to the investigation told Stabroek News that after being arrested, the woman cracked under the pressure and before long confessed her knowledge of the killing.
The source said the woman told detectives that she met the killer through a relative about two weeks ago. She met the man, who informed her that he wanted to travel overseas to surprise his girlfriend but did not have enough money. She confided in him that she was having issues with her husband, from whom she had separated, and wanted him dead.
The woman reportedly told detectives that she was having problems with her estranged husband over a property located at Diamond, East Bank Demerara. The woman lived in the top flat of the building, while a shop is operated on the bottom flat. Police have since been able to confirm that there is a matter before the court with regard to ownership of the property.
Persaud was reported to have told his wife that when he won the court case he would throw her out of the property. The source said the woman, fearing such an outcome, then decided to hatch a plan to kill him. Since they were not yet divorced she felt that everything he owned would have been left to her, including the house, the source added.
According to the source, the wife told the hitman that she wanted him to kill her husband but he should make sure that their children were not present when the crime was committed. She subsequently gave directions to the house and indicated that once Persaud was murdered a sum of money would be paid over to him. The woman did not tell the police how much money was to be paid and the impression given was that they had not yet decided on a figure.
After committing the murder, the killer went back to the woman to indicate that the job was done. Stabroek News was told that the woman told the man she would call him when she had the money. However, she was arrested by detectives the next day.
Persaud’s murder is the second high-profile killing in just over a month to be linked to a property dispute.
Elderly Montrose caretaker Danrasie Ganesh was bludgeoned to death last month and it was later revealed that she had been party to a legal dispute over a property she had owned.
Colin Alleyne, who has since been charged with her murder, reportedly confessed to killing the woman and claimed that he was hired by one of Ganesh’s close relatives to break into the house and find documents for her property. He said he was paid $700,000 by the relative.
The entire attack was caught on CCTV cameras in the house. The footage showed the elderly woman being attacked by the man, who launched a surprise attack on her. He was seen continuously beating and strangling the woman throughout what was first described as a robbery.
In the midst of the increasing crime rate, there have also been a series of crimes that police later discovered were staged.
On August 20, Deoram Sookchand had claimed that his wife, Pamela Kendall, was killed by an intruder at their Number 45 Village, Corentyne home.
Sookchand had said Kendall, a farmer, was in their house around 6.30 pm when a bandit approached the back door and shot her in her face. She died while being transferred to the Skeldon Public Hospital.
Following conflicting accounts which aroused suspicion, Sookchand was arrested. Gunpowder residue was reportedly found on his hands and he became the prime suspect. He has since been charged with the murder.
Meanwhile, last Friday Corentyne businessman Krisendat Jettoo, hire car driver Matthew Gangaprashad, and Satram Kushley, were charged with armed robbery and conspiracy to commit a felony after an alleged staged robbery at Jettoo’s home.
Following intense investigations, detectives found that Jettoo had allegedly staged an armed robbery in a desperate attempt to fix his troubled marriage.
The police had initially received a report on Sunday that a robbery had been committed around 3 am on the Jettoos’ house at Crabwood Creek by men armed with “long guns.”
