Exactly one year after he allegedly killed his teenage daughter and her cousin, New York-based Guyanese Abdool Zameer Zaman was found hanging in his prison cell on Friday evening.
According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Henrico Sheriff’s Office said that Zaman, 40, of Orlando, Florida was found in his cell at Henrico County Regional Jail East.
Staff, according to the report, cut Zaman down and administered CPR until New Kent Fire and Rescue arrived and took over.
He was pronounced dead at 4.45 pm.
The report added that an investigation has been launched by the New Kent County Sheriff’s Office into Zaman’s death at the regional jail, which is located in Barhamsville in New Kent County.
It said that New Kent Sheriff Joe McLaughlin Jr. noted that his office is awaiting an official cause of death from the office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
The murders of his daughter, Vanessa Zaman, and her cousin Leona Samlall, who were fatally shot in the 200 block of Airport Place in Highland Springs, were committed on December 13th, 2018. Zaman was arrested five days after in Queens, New York. He had fought extradition to Virginia.
A New York City judge subsequently ordered that he be turned over to Henrico County authorities in March.
He was subsequently charged with the murders.
Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Vanessa’s mother, Saveeta Barnes, said that Samlall was living with and apparently had a three-month-old child with Zaman when Vanessa moved in with them last October.
Barnes, according to the report, said that Vanessa soon became worried about Samlall’s safety.
As a result, the two women left Abdool home with the baby to stay with Samlall’s mother and stepfather in the Oakmeade Apartments in Highland Springs.
Richmond Times-Dispatch said that the teenagers arrived in Highland Springs about a week before they were shot. The shooting occurred about a block from the apartment.
Samlall once attended Highland Springs High School, but she withdrew in the fall of 2016. Henrico police had confirmed she had been on a missing persons list for the past two years.
