A female security guard was yesterday morning discovered dead in her Crane, West Coast Demerara (WCD) apartment with several stab wounds and her ex-partner has been taken into custody.
Dead is Latchmin Shiwpujan, called “Radika,” 49, of Lot 2233 Crane Housing Scheme. Her body bore several stab wounds and was found in a pool of blood by the police, hours after a report of a disturbance was made by a neighbour.
The suspect, with whom Shiwpujan had previously shared a relationship, remained in custody up to late last evening. A source indicated that phone records revealed that he was the last person in contact with the woman prior to the discovery of her body.
Stabroek News was told that the relationship went sour a few months ago following a dispute and the man reportedly removed from the apartment but still kept in contact with Shiwpujan.
The relationship between the two was described as an abusive one and they constantly argued. A motive behind the woman’s killing was not immediately clear to investigators.
When Stabroek News visited the scene, the house was tightly secured and the apartment which Shiwpujan had occupied for the past five years was padlocked.
However, a neighbour who said she was a friend of Shiwpujan, recounted speaking with her on Monday evening around 9pm.
“I went sit down by she and we went talking and she say she going and do her laundry,” the woman, who preferred not to be named, said. “We went talking about how we want to start building our own houses and so and she was telling me tomorrow (today) supposed to be her day off and she wanted to seek another job because she wasn’t comfortable where she was,” she added.
It was shortly after this that she said she heard Shiwpujan calling for her but she couldn’t answer since she was on a telephone call. “She call for me like two times and she sound normal and little after I didn’t answer I heard she hollering, ‘Ow my god don’t do that.’ And I hear a loud sound like someone slam in the door,” she added.
The woman further noted that the murder has left her traumatised. After hearing the disturbance from Shiwpujan’s apartment, she sensed something was amiss, which resulted in her being scared for her life and the lives of her children. “I couldn’t sleep and my sons were waiting up with me to see if anyone would open the door to do us anything,” she stated. She said for a while she heard footsteps. “He blow his nose and jumped over the fence like, well at least that’s how it sound,” the woman added.
Shiwpujan’s body was taken to the Ezekiel Funeral Home and up to yesterday afternoon no relatives turned up to claim her remains.
Her family had been unaware of her death prior to being informed by this newspaper.
“Years now me and she don’t talk. Since she went away and come back, is like she does want live she own kind of life and I ain’t able with that,” Shiwpujan’s sister stated.
Shiwpujan is survived by her two children, who are currently in Trinidad and Tobago.
