While the police in Berbice are awaiting a post-mortem examination to determine the cause of death of Chandrawattie Williams, whose body was found on Tuesday partially decomposed, neighbours and close friends yesterday disclosed that she suffered 20 years of physical and verbal abuse at the hands of her husband.
The body of Williams, also known as “Geeta”, 44, of Bath Squatting Area, West Coast Berbice, was discovered by her 13-year-old son on Tuesday around 6 pm in their house.
However, sources close to the investigation told Stabroek News that no discernible marks of violence were noticed on the woman’s body and that several containers suspected to contain poisonous substances were seen around the area where the body was discovered. As such, in order to ascertain the cause of the woman’s death, a post-mortem examination is expected to be done sometime this week.
When Stabroek News visited the village yesterday, relatives and residents relayed that the woman suffered greatly at the hands of her husband, who is a driver and cash crop farmer.
The woman’s brother, Narampaul Mohan, 39, of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice, relayed that last Sunday the couple’s son, 13, came to their house as he would normally do whenever his father would launch an attack on his mother. Mohan related, “The man is very violent when he drink, so when he drink the son does want get away cause he does want beat the boy too…Sunday when the boy come he get away cause he been a beat she”.
Mohan explained that on the following Tuesday the child received a call from a relative informing him that his father wanted to see him at home. However, upon arriving home, the child discovered his mother’s lifeless body in their bedroom.
“I tell the child bathe and eat and then go, so he go when place dark, so when he go now according to he, he see half of the door open and he close back the door and put on the light and when he go in the room he see he mother on the ground and he run out and then he start scream,” Mohan relayed.
“The boy say the father was there with a cutlass, the son is the last person to see him”, he further related.
While the father’s whereabouts are still unknown, residents suggested that his relatives who would often visit him may know of his location, while others suggested that he may be hiding out aback the village.
Witnessed
Meanwhile, residents in the area also noted that they too witnessed the man beating the woman on Sunday afternoon. One resident who lives close to the couple said, “Sunday she been a look after she garden and he beat she and that was the last time me see she”.
“If you hear how she a holla when he a beat she, that a normal for them, me call police nuff time. Them police a come, me na go lie, but then she a go back with the man. Them police must be get fed up, sometime when them police come, he a hide,” another resident said.
An elderly woman living in the area told Stabroek News that she was afraid to go on record because residents had been subject to verbal abuse from the suspect in the past.
“He does turn and cuss all them neighbour when abie talk for the girl,” she stated. The woman said that the man started to beat the woman on Saturday and continued on Sunday. “He been a beat she and she a holla in the house. She shaky; licks make she shaky…Me call the police and them say them disgust run and come and the boy a hide”, she claimed. “But police does come and he a run and hide in the bush”, she added.
Both Mohan and residents said that they would have encouraged the woman numerous times to separate from the man. Mohan noted, “All the time abie tell she left he, if he beat she, she a left he for a three month and come here and when we na deh she get away and gone back…One time he beat she, chop she foot, one time he buss up she head, one time he chop she in she head and she does left and go back still”, the emotional brother said.
A resident related, “He beat she so bad till now when she a walk she a tremble and so, me does tell she lef am but this girl a go back all the time, he get that girl how she been so, she na mad or nothing, he beat she make she turn like da”.
Mohan noted that his sister herself had filed several complaints with the police, who would intervene and arrest the man but it would always end up with Chandrawattie not showing up to court or pleading to have the matter dropped.
Mohan said that sometime last week the husband also attempted to attack his son-in-law with a cutlass “and the boy get he lock up”.
According to Mohan, the last time he saw his sister was when she visited sometime in August. “I can’t remember the last time I see the man, he don’t come around here, we don’t pay no attention to him”, the brother said.
Meanwhile, residents in the area spoke very kindly about the woman, who they stated was very helpful and quiet. “If you na talk with she you na hear she mouth”, one said.
The resident noted that Chandrawattie would often assist her husband in the garden located in their yard, which he shares with his brother.
Chandrawattie is survived by four children, two of whom were fathered by her second husband.
