A woman was on Wednesday night chopped to death by her husband, who made good on previous threats to end her life because she disregarded his wishes that she not work.
Security guard Candacy Pitt, 31, of Chelsea Park, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara, was attacked at the Bygeval Secondary School, a stone’s throw away from her home, where she was on duty. Pitt’s cousin, Brenda Thomas, 51, also of Chelsea Park, and who was also guarding the school, was also chopped and is currently a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Police, in a statement, said that the suspect, Athlone Pitt, 41, surrendered and confessed to the crime.
Candacy, who was called “Cindy,” had ignored her husband and got a job with the Safeway Security Service approximately six weeks ago. He had chosen not to work and survived on remittances from relatives overseas. The woman’s relatives added that he had threatened to kill her on multiple occasions but she never reported it.
According to the police statement, around 9.45pm Athlone went to the school and dealt Candacy multiple chops about her body after he chopped Thomas, who had denied him entry into the compound. The statement said after the chopping both women were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where Candacy was pronounced dead on arrival.
Thomas, from her hospital bed, yesterday recalled that on two occasions prior to the attack Athlone visited but she sent him home. She added that he went to the job site minutes after Candacy’s father had dropped her off at the gate. “After the father drop her, he come behind—I don’t know where he de stash heself—but he come
and he call her at the gate. I don’t know what he tell her and she tell he go home and sleep and he walk away,” she explained.
She recalled that Athlone returned a second time while Candacy was talking to a man, who was enquiring about another cousin. Thomas explained that after the man left, she heard the gate opening and when Candacy checked she saw it was her husband and she enquired where he was going but he did not respond. She added they were in the guard hut at this point and the place was dark due to a power outage.
Thomas said she was standing at the door when Athlone entered the compound and immediately fired a chop, which caught her to the left side of her abdomen. Unaware that she was chopped, Thomas said she grabbed on to Athlone and braced him to the wall, while the sharp blade of the cutlass sliced her fingers on the right hand. She added that the man wrestled her and pulled away the cutlass. It was then she said that Candacy said, “Buddy! Buddy! Wha happen? Wha happen? Wha happen to you boy?”
Thomas said at this point she ran out of the compound and Candacy ran out of the guard hut, with Athlone behind her. He mercilessly chopped her about her body, she added, while noting that she was standing by the gate in shock as she witnessed the attack. “She ran and he chopped her and then kick her over and chopped her more and then chop her across her neck and walk out,” she recalled, while sobbing in her hospital bed.
Thomas lamented that after she saw Athlone leaving the compound, she ran in the direction of her home and yelled out “Murder! Murder!” but no one responded. She added that as she approached closer to home, her children heard her cries and responded. She said it was then she felt a stiffness on her side and when she placed her hand she felt the blood and informed her children to rush her to the hospital.
Residents of the community expressed shock at the merciless chopping of the woman yesterday.
Never wanted to work
Candacy Pitt’s mother, Yvonne Andrews, told Stabroek News that prior to the attack Athlone had gone to her house and called for her daughter and other members of the family but they did not respond. The mother said when it was time for Candacy to go to work, she called for Thomas to pick her up as she feared her husband would attack if she walked there alone. However, Thomas had already left and Candacy’s father eventually accompanied her to work.
The mother added that when Candacy’s father returned, he saw Athlone outside and encouraged him to get a job. “My husband tell he ‘you have to push yuh body,’” she recounted.
The mother said when she received the message of her daughter’s death, she was told, “Buddy murder Cindy.” The tearful woman added that her daughter did not deserve such a death as she was a quiet individual, who was trying to earn for herself.
Candacy and Athlone, Andrews said, were married for thirteen years. She said Athlone never wanted to work even though he is knowledgeable in the areas of masonry and carpentry.
Thomas told this publication that Candacy had asked her to seek a job for her. “She does tell me, ‘Brenda he don’t give me nothing. Since I married him he don’t give me nothing.
He does collect money from his sister who lives overseas but he don’t give me nothing and he don’t work,’” she recalled.
A sister of the dead woman, Isabella Andrews, said that on many occasions Athlone would threaten to kill her and the family but her now deceased sister took it as a joke.
The sister said on one occasion, Athlone went to her sister’s workplace and asked if “she wants gun or cutlass” but the sister kept thinking of it as a joke.
She and Andrews lamented that they told Candacy to report the threats to the police but she refused.
Andrews recalled that recently at a wedding, her daughter was dancing with her relatives and Athlone, who she described as a jealous individual, saw and dragged Candacy out from the crowd. She added that the relatives who were present objected to his behaviour and he eased up.
