Three men were yesterday taken before a city court charged with the murders of Constance Fraser, and Phyllis Caesar, who were killed during a robbery at their South Road and Albert Street home last week.
Charged were Imran Khan, called Christopher Khan, 25, of Independence Boulevard; Stephen Jason Andrews, of Albouystown, and Phillip Suffrien, 23, of 66 Hunter Street, Albouystown.
The first charge read to the three men stated that between October 2 and October 3, at Lot 243 South Road and Albert Street, they murdered Constance Fraser.
A second charge was read which stated that on the said date and at the very location they murdered Phyllis Caesar.
The accused men were not required to enter a plea to the indictable charge.
Police Prosecutor Arvin Moore told the court that the post-mortem reports are outstanding for both files.
Subsequently, the three men were remanded to prison and will make their next court appearance on October 26.
Meanwhile, in the courtroom of Magistrate Fabayo Azore, Seeta Khan, 36, a beggar, was charged with receiving stolen money.
The charge stated that between October 2 and October 3, at Albouystown, she received from Christopher Khan $60,000, knowing same to be stolen, property of Constance Fraser.
Seeta Khan, denied the charge. There was no objection to bail by the prosecutor and as such, the Magistrate granted the accused, a mother of three, $25,000 bail.
Her matter was later adjourned to October 25.
Fraser and Caesar, of Lot 243 South Road and Albert Street, Georgetown, were discovered around 9.30 am last week Tuesday by members of their church, the South Road Full Gospel Assembly, after several efforts to contact them proved futile.
Meanwhile, autopsies performed last week by government pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh on the remains of the women revealed that they both died as a result of asphyxiation, due to suffocation and manual strangulation, compounded by trauma to the head.
At the time of the discovery, their bodies were in separate bedrooms. Their hands and feet were bound and they were both gagged.
It is suspected that they had been the victims of a robbery sometime between the evening of October 2 and the morning of October 3, since the house was completely ransacked and several items were reported missing.
The door to the upper flat of the two-storey house was also found open and it is believed that the suspect(s) might have gained entry into the house by climbing onto the verandah.
Stabroek News was previously told that it was customary for Caesar to open the church every morning. However, church members sensed that something was amiss last Tuesday morning when she did not turn up to perform her usual duties.
As a result, they made several calls to her and visited the home but got no answer. They then noticed the door to the verandah open, and upon checking, the bodies were discovered. The police were immediately summoned.
Fraser was a retiree, and Caesar, who was the caretaker of the church, also worked at a private school located a short distance away from the home.
