A wanted bulletin was yesterday issued for Mohammed Ramzan Shaheed who is accused of robbing and killing an 85-year-old Bushlot, West Coast Berbice woman on Monday morning.
The body of Sumintra Sawh, also known as “Aunty Betty”, 85, of Lot 131 Section ‘B’ Bushlot Village, West Coast Berbice, was found on her bed with stab wounds – one each on both sides of her temple, three on the forehead, and one to the back of the head.
A post-mortem examination carried out yesterday revealed that she died as a result of asphyxia and aspiration of blood in airway, shock and haemorrhage and a fractured skull and multiple stab wounds to the head and face.
According to the post-mortem examination, the woman sustained a total of seven stab wounds.
Sawh, who would have celebrated her birthday on the day she was brutally murdered, resided alone following the death of her husband a few years ago. However, her great niece, Roshanie Basdeo, 35, who she regarded as her granddaughter, would spend the evenings with her.
The Guyana Police Force yesterday officially confirmed that Basdeo confessed to planning the robbery with the suspect. A report from the GPF said that Basdeo has “given investigators the gruesome details of what transpired.”
As of yesterday afternoon, she remained in police custody as investigators continued the hunt for Shaheed, 48.
A police source on Tuesday had told Stabroek News that the woman told investigators that Shaheed who resides next door to the deceased and would do odd jobs for her visited the day prior and she (Basdeo) gave him $1,000.
However, she claimed that when he returned he informed her that he would rob the elderly woman and buy a scooter. Basdeo claimed that Shaheed told her that she would get the elderly woman’s house as a result of the robbery.
On Monday morning, he visited the woman’s house and asked her for the money while Sawh was sleeping. She reportedly told investigators that she showed him the bag in Sawh’s room which contained the money.
She said he proceeded to the room where he began assaulting Sawh and beating her with an object. She claimed that he then walked out of the room with Sawh’s bag and he scrambled her to her neck and cut her left hand after which he then threatened to kill her family if she was to talk and then left.
Initially, she had told investigators that two male bandits entered the house and took her downstairs where they tied her up while one went upstairs and attacked Sawh. H0wever, Basdeo in her confession has now said that she was never tied up.
Shaheed reportedly entered the house through the kitchen door which was left open by Basdeo and also escaped through the said door.
