A Brighton Village, Corentyne labourer was yesterday morning found dead after he set his wooden house on fire destroying all of his family’s belongings on Monday sometime around 6.30 pm.
The man, Michael Lewis, attempted to set his family on fire by dousing them with gasoline, while earlier in the day he attempted to beat his wife with a hammer.
The woman, Candacy Khedaroo, 28, a mother of three explained, that on Monday she attended her nephew’s birthday party and returned home with her children around 3 pm. However, upon returning home Lewis, 34, began to verbally abuse h er.
“I open me door and put down me bag and he came to me with a hammer and say he heard I went to airport, so I ask he who tell he da, who give you da wrong news and then he scramble me and I tell he ‘please don’t do me anything'”.
The woman said that after noticing the man choking her, her children began to scream, “I resist to he and I kinda like come out and run away to we neighbour them”.
She said she and the children then went to her mother’s house located a couple of villages away and requested that her mother accompany her home to collect clothing for herself and school clothing for her children “… because me say me na able with this anymore a me life”.
However, after returning home with her mother, who asked the man to hand over Khedaroo’s Identification Card, Lewis then doused the women and the three children with gasoline along with a neighbour who was present in the yard at the time. The women then took the children and fled the premises into the neighbour’s yard.
However, moments later they noticed smoke coming from the house and the man rushing out into the backlands. Residents relayed that the man stood on the dam and watched on until the flames engulfed the entire house, after which he escaped.
Khedaroo relayed that the man attempted to burn her mother’s house as well on Monday night. She said that around 9 pm they heard sounds in the backyard and upon checking the saw that a fire had been started on the back wall. The woman said that her brother and relatives hurriedly put out the fire.
Lewis’s body was discovered in the backlands in Brighton Village sometime around 8 am yesterday. Stabroek News was told that a bottle suspected to have contained a poisonous substance, a syringe, a cellular phone, an ID card and a piece of cloth were found near to the body.
Khedaroo, a mother of a seven-year-old, four-year-old and two-year-old explained that she began living home with Lewis over five years ago. However, she explained that for the last three years of their relationship the man started to physically assault her. She said she took him “to welfare, in front the court all. He use to deh with woman and when me talk he use to beat me and hurt me”, she said.
The woman who will be staying with her mother is now on the hunt for a job. She can be contacted on telephone numbers 687 1351 or 625 6533.
