Years of domestic abuse ended on Thursday night when a mother of six was stabbed to death in full view of her 16-year-old daughter and her attacker, who subsequently attempted to take his own life has been arrested.
Dead is Somattie Keosoram, 44, a domestic worker. Keosoram was stabbed multiple times about her body. Her throat was also slit. She was rushed to the Mahaicony Cottage Hospital where she died on arrival.
Her husband, Terrence Jackson, 56, a rice mill employee fled the scene on a bicycle. He was apprehended by the police yesterday morning, shortly after he attempted to hang himself.
The incident took place around 7.30 pm at Keosoram’s Lot 36 Virginia Village, Cane Grove, East Coast Demerara house which she occupied with three of her six children.
Reports are that the couple shared a years-long marriage which Keosoram ended about three years ago due to the constant abuse she faced.
As a result, she moved to Cane Grove with her children. However, despite this, the suspect would frequent their home and had only moved in back without her permission less than a month ago.
Stabroek News understands that the couple was involved in a heated argument on Thursday evening during which Keosoram told the suspect to leave. However, he refused and the argument escalated during which she was attacked and stabbed.
When Stabroek News visited the scene yesterday, a number of family members and residents were gathered at the house in a state of shock.
Jackson was also taken back to the scene by the police as the investigation continues. While he was being escorted into the yard, his eldest son was heard asking him, ‘Yuh please wah yuh do now? Eh big man? Yuh please wah yuh do now?’ continuously. Before he departed, Jackson responded, “yeah”.
Stabroek News was told that earlier in the night, Keosoram and her daughter were seated in the yard after which they returned to the house.
They subsequently had dinner during which Keosoram and the suspect had an argument. “…Keosoram told Jackson that she ain’t sleeping with he because the night before (Wednesday), they had a lil ups and down and she nah sleep with he the night neither,” a relative said.
As a result, Keosoram asked Jackson for her mattress and mosquito net out of the room to sleep in the hallway. “…They started to argue more. It gone lil bit more far and stuff,” the relative said.
The relative further explained that Keosoram then asked the suspect to gather his belongings and leave the house. “..He seh ‘me nah leave heh because me live heh suh and me money spend heh’…..she seh if you can’t move me go move,” the relative recalled.
Jackson then left and went into the bedroom where he changed his clothing.
“…..He go in his bag and he took the knife out and he come. The light went on and remember the light and the silver thing (knife blade) now flash together. Suh I barely spot the thing (knife). So when I spot the thing now, me jump. Me seh that how something he must be going and chop a verandah,” the relative related.
“He come and me think that how he go give she couple punch or he go slap she or whatever…I was expecting some licks or something. Then I see when the blood spread. It spray on the blind. He stab her in she throat and then he keep stabbing and stabbing and then he slit she throat. But he keep stabbing …” the relative added.
One of the children who was present had attempted to fight off Jackson to no avail.
“So he (Jackson) watch me in a kind a way and then he watch back the knife and the door was lock. So I run to open the door and the door wasn’t opening and I kick the door, it ain’t opening still. So me gee the door one hard pull, when he done get up and he ah come to me then is when the door open,” the relative said.
“So me see the man (Jackson) fling out ah the back step. I ain’t know how he meet down suh quick but he meet down,” the relative added.
As she noticed the suspect approaching her, the relative said she screamed to alert her neighbours and he escaped.
At this point, the badly chopped Keosoram was “bleeding through she nose, she mouth and she was shaking hard, hard, hard,” the relative recalled.
Abuse and constant threats
Family members told this newspaper that Jackson would often abuse Keosoram. They said from the early stages of their marriage he accused her of sharing a relationship with someone else.
Relatives said that in the past, the woman was beaten and even chopped by Jackson.
One relative related that Jackson also previously threatened to kill Keosoram. “…He use to seh that how when he done kill she, he gone kill he self,” the relative said.
Meanwhile, the dead woman’s sister, Shenny Khan told Stabroek News that she and Keosoram shared a close relationship and they would regularly speak on the phone.
Shenny said Keosoram would usually open to her about her problems.
“She always seh that he abuse she. He always blame she with man. She can’t deh in peace. She go pack she thing and go away. Nobody nah go know weh she deh. She send he home back, he still coming back. Every time, two, three time, a week, he does come home here, she does put he out, he does still come back,” Shenny explained.
“Me does ask she wah she doing and she does seh nothing. Me hear he talk, meh seh ‘Jackson deh home back?’ she seh yes he come home back. She ah seh he ease and then he start up back again,” she added.
Shenny said she tried her best to advise Keosoram.
“I does tell she well see wah yuh want. If you know you nah want he, tell he straight yuh nah want am. But when me call she, she always seh, well he come home back. Without she permission, he always come in back,” she related.
According to Shenny, Keosoram reported the suspect before and the couple even received counselling.
“…Them went at Provisional officer and everything. Them had counselling because he smoking. She report everything to them, explain everything and tell them and them mek up back,” Shenny further explained.
On January 8, Shenny said, Keosoram, her husband and two of their children visited her house in Enmore where they spent the night.
“The morning she come home and from since then I never hear back from she,” she said.
Ryan Mohamed, a neighbour said that arguments between the couple were “normal”. Mohamed said that he heard them arguing on Thursday night, but didn’t take it seriously since it was customary.
“He and she does normally quarrel (about) everything…me nah really expect that dah go happen. Me thought was just a normal quarrel,” Mohamed said, while adding, “by them does quarrel so regularly me don’t really pay that much attention to them”.
