Murders of elderly ‘home alone’ women worry cops

Apr 22, 2011 News

Khirul Najidam

By Michael Jordan

Homicide ranks here are worried at what appears to be a pattern of brutal murders of elderly women who live alone. Of the nine women slain so far for the year, three of them were between the ages of 68 and 74.
In each case the motive appeared to be robbery, but police said that two of the victims were sexually assaulted. Two were strangled and the throat of the third was slashed.
“Is a sadist seeking out old people who live alone?” one source speculated yesterday. “We can’t do away with this theory. We are dusting frantically for fingerprints (to see if they match).”
In mid-February, the bound body of 64-year-old Prampattie Ramsundar called ‘Aunty Daro’ was found in the bottom flat of her Lot 88 Second Street, Newtown, Enmore home. Her hands were bound and a telephone cord was wrapped around her neck.
A sister who found the body said that there was no sign of forced entry to the victim’s house. She believed that this suggested that her slain sister knew her attacker and willingly opened her door.
Ramsundar’s house was ransacked and there were ashes in her home, indicating that her attackers were smoking in the house. According to the sister, over $500,000 in cash was missing.
Neighbours had heard screams at around 03:00 hours on the day that the elderly woman was slain.

Prampattie Ramsundar

One neighbour recalled peeping through her window and calling out to Ramsundar, but getting no answer.
The neighbour also recalled seeing the victim’s door ajar. However, when the neighbour peeped outside about an hour later, Ramsundar’s door was closed.
According to reports, a police tracker dog led investigators to a house some two corners away from the slain woman’s home. The house was reportedly occupied by a man who was often abusive to Ramsundar.
In early March, two schoolgirls found the body of 74-year-old Khirul Najidam, called Babloo Saddick, in a store room located in the lower flat of her 1215 Gaulding Place home. She was bound and gagged and her home was ransacked. Saddick was last seen alive around noon on the same day she was slain.
The victim had operated a small confectionery stand.
At around 15:00hrs that day, a group of school children went to the woman’s house to make a purchase.
After calling and getting no response, two girls ventured further into the yard and found the woman’s body in the storeroom.
One neighbour claimed to have seen three young boys running from the house some time before

Sukhdai Ramkilaum

15:00hrs, but thought nothing of it, since some persons would often try to steal the woman’s fruits.
And on Wednesday, the partly nude body of 68-year-old Sukhdai Ramkilaum, called ‘Mama Rose’ and ‘Rosaline,’ was found in a pool of blood in the bedroom of her Lot 80 Vryheid’s Lust North residence. Her throat had been slit and her home was ransacked.
Like the other victims, Ramkilaum also lived alone.
The dead woman’s nephew, who lives next door, said that the first sign that he and his wife got that something was amiss was when the woman didn’t respond to calls on Tuesday afternoon.
His wife then observed blood dripping from the floor boards to the ground below.
He then contacted the police, who accompanied him to the house where they made the grisly discovery.