(Trinidad Express) An Endeavour, Chaguanas, man was found tied up and murdered inside his home on Wednesday night.
The body of 59-year-old sales manager Stephen Sookhan was found by his neighbour—a police officer—in a bedroom of his home, with his feet bound and his throat slit.
He lived at Oasis Gardens, Endeavour, Chaguanas.
Neighbours said Sookhan, who worked at Smith Robertson and Company Ltd for almost 16 years, lived alone but was on occasion visited by a friend.
Police said Sookhan’s neighbour received a call around 10.50 p.m. from his wife, alerting him to a video posted in their community group chat, which showed a man police confirmed as a Venezuelan national on Sookhan’s neighbour’s premises at Wellspring Drive, Oasis Gardens.
CCTV footage posted to social media around 10 p.m. showed the man walking bare-chested in short pants outside the home next to Sookhan’s house.
He was seen knocking on the windows and door of the house, and later climbed over the fence and into Sookhan’s property.
Around 11.05 p.m., the officer went over and found Sookhan’s front door open, and the victim dead in the bedroom.
He searched the area and saw the Venezuelan man hiding under a tree in the yard.
He was detained and remained in police custody last night.
Reports said Sookhan’s car and valuables were also stolen during the attack.
Investigations led by Corporal Ramoutar are continuing.
When the Express visited the Oasis Gardens community yesterday, a resident living nearby maintained that the man had actually jumped the fence to alert the neighbour about the attack on Sookhan.
The neighbour believed the Venezuelan man may have been Sookhan’s friend.
The neighbour said while Sookhan was a “private person” who “kept to himself”, he was always smiling and warm.
The neighbour said Sookhan “didn’t deserve this at all”.
Tributes for Sookhan from colleagues on social media yesterday described him as “very diligent and hard-working” and always “jolly and energetic”.
