Two Guyanese found dead in Trinidad apartment

Feb 19, 2010 News

The now dead Maria Ward in the Georgetown Public Hospital after she was severely wounded on April 20, 2009.

Murder/suicide suspected

By Mondale Smith and Jenelle Carter

Trinidad police are investigating the death of two Guyanese nationals following the discovery of their bodies in an apartment.
Dead are 22-year-old Maria Ward and her friend, Christopher Haynes. Both were found in Ward’s home yesterday. Trinidad police report that at approximately 08:30hrs yesterday they received a call from Ward’s landlady who told them that a friend of Ward, who regularly calls her at her Main Road, Longdenville home in Central Trinidad, could not contact her.
When the police arrived at the apartment, it was locked and officers resorted to breaking down the door. When they finally got inside they found the bodies on the floor.
Ward was reportedly clad only in her underwear and Haynes in boxer shorts and a vest. There were no marks of violence.
A source in Trinidad told this publication that Christopher Haynes was last seen alive on Wednesday at approximately 15:15hrs. Ward had been renting the apartment from late November. Haynes arrived in Trinidad one week ago. Ward worked at a food outlet.
Police believe that it might have been a murder/suicide, however, that has not been confirmed.
The woman suffered prior abuse and an attempt was made on her life.
On April 20, last year, police arrested Haynes at the Georgetown Public Hospital after he had rushed his lover there with her throat slit.
That woman was in an unconscious state and also had three stab wounds about her body. The wounds included a stab to her left temple. The man who took her there (Haynes) told hospital officials and police ranks that Ward was his reputed wife. He further related, when questioned about the wounds the woman had, that he was out when she called from home saying that someone had attacked her, so he rushed to the house and subsequently brought her to the hospital for treatment.
However there was a dramatic twist of events when the injured woman regained consciousness while being treated by doctors at the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit.
She told a different story, and the police were called in.
The law enforcement officers asked Ward if the person who inflicted the wounds was the person who was waiting outside the hospital for her.
Ward answered in the affirmative and the man (Haynes) was arrested.
Later, in an interview with this newspaper Ward said that the incident stemmed from her reputed husband accusing her of having an affair. The woman said that around 19:00 hours on April 20, 2009 she was returning to Golden Grove after visiting a friend at Plaisance.
“As soon as I jump out de minibus I see he standing right deh and he turn and tell me ‘Good, I catch yuh now’ and ‘I gon find da man who huttin’ up me head,” Ward related.
She said that after a brief talk her reputed husband, with whom she has been living for two years, invited her to go to the seawall in Georgetown.
The woman said that she and her partner left the sea wall some time after 01:00 hour on April 20 and went to his parents’ home in Golden Grove but after calling for a while and getting no response they decide to leave the location.
She said her reputed husband then took her to a vacant lot next door to his parent’s home where he began choking her.
Moments later the woman said she felt something pierce her face on the left side, then her neck, and blood started to spurt out.
“All I coulda do was run and scream for help. I run to he parents’ house and call but nobody ain’t come out,” Ward recalled.
She added that the last thing she recalled was her reputed husband catching up with her and taking off the top she was wearing.
Ward said her reputed husband never abused her and she has no idea what led him to do what he did.
At that time she said they had parented a two-year-old son and they decided to live together at Haslington with her grandmother.
The matter reached all the way to court but reports are that the woman asked that the charges be dropped. She later fled to Trinidad and reports are that only last week, Ward, in a telephone conversation with another boyfriend, spoke of feeling safe away from her attacker.
However, the man reportedly followed her to Trinidad where they were both found dead.