A Linden man yesterday stabbed his common-law wife to death and then turned the weapon on himself and slit his own throat.
Leolyn Annetta Sullivan, 34, a vendor and mother of six of Wisroc Housing Scheme, Linden, was stabbed over 15 times about her body by her partner, Clarence Carter, 50, who survived the wounds he inflicted on himself.
One of the woman’s daughters, Shemeka Campbell, 18, was also stabbed to the neck and arm by the man during the attack.
Both Carter and Campbell are now admitted at the Linden Hospital. Carter, who is under police guard, is said to be in a critical condition, while Campbell is in a stable condition.
Stabroek News was told that Carter and Sullivan had shared an abusive relationship for six years.
The police, in a statement on the murder, said that that Carter and Sullivan had an argument around 2am and she was stabbed multiple times about her body by the man.
It added that her two daughters went to her defence and Campbell was stabbed to her arm and neck before the man self-inflicted wounds to his own neck and chest.
They were all taken to the Linden Hospital, where Sullivan was pronounced dead on arrival and Campbell and Carter were admitted as patients.
When Stabroek News visited the couple’s house yesterday, it was secured with a padlock. A bloodstained mattress and mosquito net were seen in the yard. A louvre window at the eastern side of the house was shattered.
Howell Hinds, the father of the dead woman, said he still had not accepted the fact that his daughter is no longer alive. He, however, noted that he was thankful that his grand-daughter was alive and the others who were present during the man’s rampage were not harmed. The couple’s children were said to be staying at relatives.
Hinds explained that around 5am yesterday, three relatives visited his Lot 83 Amelia’s Ward, Linden home and
informed him of what had taken place. As a result, he said he rushed to the hospital, where he saw his daughter covered in blood and lying on a bed in the Accident and Emergency Unit. She was already dead.
The grieving father, a marriage counsellor who returned to Guyana from the United States about three months ago, said Sullivan was living in an abusive relationship and it was only last week that he counselled her and Carter about the constant abuse. “I told them if they can’t agree they should separate,” he said.
According to Hinds, Sullivan, who was a ballroom dancer, went to a club on Sunday evening to attend a weekly event and returned early yesterday morning, just before the attack occurred.
“When she came home and was undressing, Carter attacked her from behind,” Hinds said, while relating what he was told. He added that in a bid to defend herself from the armed man, his daughter broke a louvre pane and jumped out of the house. However, it was then that she heard the screams of Campbell and she then re-entered the house.
“When she jumped out, the man attacked she daughter and is then she must have realised she left them behind and she went back to protect them,” Hinds said. He said after stabbing Campbell twice, Carter then turned the weapon on Sullivan.
“He stab her once and I heard she run away some 200 yards down the road and he run behind her and inflicted the deadly wounds,” the visibly shocked father stated. He said he was told that his daughter fell in a yard and Carter then returned to his house, where he slit his own throat.
Residents who were awakened by screams of the children rushed the trio to the hospital before alerting the police.
Sullivan is survived by her children, the youngest of whom is two years old.
