Trinidad: Children rescued from house with three corpses were blood-soaked and starving

(Trinidad Guardian) The two chil­dren found in their Penal home with three corpses on Thurs­day were blood-soaked and starv­ing, accord­ing to their grand­fa­ther Dipraj Ra­goo­nanan.

Ra­goo­nanan’s com­ment con­tra­dict­ed that of the po­lice first re­spon­ders, who claimed the chil­dren appeared to be well-fed and clean when they were res­cued.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre yesterday, Dipraj, 72 said he cried uncontrol­lably when he saw the chil­dren.

He said the two chil­dren, an eight-month-old ba­by boy and a three-year-old girl, were starv­ing and dehy­drat­ed.

“They were giv­en IV flu­ids at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal…we left there late [Thursday night] because they were see­ing about them.”

“The lit­tle girl does call me Nana and she told me ‘Nana, Nana I try­ing to wake up mum­my for tea but she not wak­ing up’…my heart broke…I start to cry. If you see them state…the clothes mess up with blood and stuff…their hands and faces,” Dipraj said.

Dipraj, who is still wait­ing for the au­top­sies to be done on the bod­ies of his daugh­ter Shelly-Ann Ragoonanan, 43, and her hus­band, Wazir Mo­hammed, 57, and Mo­hammed’s broth­er, Naz­im, 52, said po­lice told him their throats were slit. Po­lice said on Thurs­day that the vic­tims were shot some­time on Sun­day.

The de­com­pos­ing bod­ies were dis­cov­ered on Thurs­day at about 3 pm at their home at Clarke Road in Pe­nal.

The au­top­sies were done yesterday at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre (FSC).

The hor­rif­ic dis­cov­ery was made by their old­er son Vishard Mo­hammed, 21.

Dipraj said he did not have much to do with Ra­goo­nanan’s hus­band and his fam­i­ly but de­scribed her as a kind-heart­ed per­son.

“She was re­al­ly a good per­son…very qui­et…they just would drop her off by me and come back for her. She nev­er worked too as she had no cause to…her hus­band came from a mon­ey fam­i­ly.”

Dipraj said Vishard and him went to the house af­ter Vishard com­plained to him that he failed numerous times to con­tact both his par­ents.

“When we went the gate was locked and the boy jumped the wall and went in the house…the door was open and that’s when he saw the bod­ies rot­ting and the chil­dren among the bod­ies… My heart broke…I start­ed to cry to see the chil­dren in the state they were in,” Dipraj said.

While no mo­tive was es­tab­lished for the Pe­nal mur­ders, in­ves­ti­ga­tors are prob­ing whether Mohammed’s job as a scrap-iron and used truck parts deal­er had any­thing to do with it. How­ev­er, they said it did not ap­pear that there was a rob­bery.