(Trinidad Express) A Point Fortin businesswoman was tied up, beaten to death and covered with a white sheet inside her home on Saturday.
The death of 56-year-old Sandra Gopee-Despot has outraged residents of Hollywood Junction, Fanny Village, who described the woman as hard-working, kind and helpful.
Police said Gopee-Despot, who owned a commercial building, was last seen alive by her companion Patterson Floyd around 6.30 a.m. on Saturday. He returned later that evening to find her lying on the living room floor, hands tied and her head bashed in.
Floyd, who had shared a close relationship with Gopee-Despot, said he was baffled by the brutal attack.
“I don’t want to believe that someone would come in here and beat her so savagely,” he said in an interview yesterday.
Investigators say Gopee-Despot was involved in a legal battle regarding property. It is uncertain, however, whether her death was linked to the court matters.
Floyd said: “We don’t live together but I come and visit her almost every day. I came on Friday and we watched wrestling and I stayed the night. I left around 6.30 a.m. to go to work and she was good. There were no signs of concern and she was in good spirits.”
Floyd, who works as a chef, said he returned to Gopee-Despot’s home around 6.30 p.m. on Saturday.
“There are three gates and two were closed, one was opened. I saw she had washed clothes because clothes were hanging in the garage. I called out to her but there was no response and I went inside looking for her. I went into the living room and things were out of place. Then I saw her lying on the ground, a white sheet that she had on the couch was over her face and it had blood. A table she had in the living room had fallen over her,” he recalled.
Floyd said he contacted the Point Fortin police and waited for the officers to arrive.
Her niece, Natalie Fields, said her aunt was working on repairing her home and taking care of her body. “She was having some stomach pains and we discussed it and she was going to the doctor to find out what was happening,” she said.
Fields said her aunt was well loved and enjoyed cooking for her family and friends.
Police said the woman’s hands were bound with a plastic tie strap to the front of her body. She was savagely beaten on the head and face, police said. Her attacker then used a white sheet to cover her body. The sheet was soaked in her blood by the time officers arrived.
Two cellphones, an orange T-shirt and khaki-coloured pants found near the body were seized by police.
Police said one of the bedrooms was ransacked.
The killing took the murder toll for the year to date to 529.