Victim’s nephew says he and friend killed aunt

Jun 01, 2011 News

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Doctor’s slain wife…

– leads cops to hammer used
– woman reportedly slain over property dispute
– DDP advises murder charges

By Michael Jordan

Mark Singh, the detained nephew of Mrs. Sharanie Doobay, reportedly confessed yesterday that he and a friend beat his aunt to death with a hammer shortly after she allowed them into her home.
The handcuffed man, accompanied by his alleged accomplice, then led police to a trench in Stone Avenue, Campbellville, in which he had allegedly disposed of the weapon.
The claw hammer, which was wrapped in a black plastic bag, was recovered on the stroke of 3:00 pm yesterday from the trench, just a corner away from the Doobays’ residence.
Singh, and his alleged accomplice, who is a taxi driver, were then handcuffed together and taken back into custody. The driver’s car has also been impounded. Another car owner, who police had detained, is likely to be released.
A police official said that the suspects indicated that they had acted alone.
“There is nobody else…the buck stops there.”
Police officials said that the breakthrough came earlier in the day, when the 38-year-old man from Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, admitted to killing his aunt, who had let him and a friend into her home and given them refreshments. Kaieteur News understands that the callous crime appeared to stem from a dispute over a property that is owned by Mrs. Doobay, and in which the suspect and his family live.
This newspaper was told that Mrs. Doobay had threatened to evict the nephew and sell the property because he had failed to pay the rates and taxes.  Robbery was reportedly also a secondary motive, since the suspects allegedly stole a bag containing an undisclosed sum of money from the house. Apparently unknown to them, another bag with some $10M more was in the house.
According to sources, although the nephew has initially admitted to killing his aunt, both men are now claiming that the other inflicted the fatal blows.
Kaieteur News has learnt that the men visited Mrs. Doobay’s house on the fateful day and were invited in. They were given refreshments and it was shortly after this that one of the men sneaked up on Mrs. Doobay and struck her repeatedly on the head with a hammer. They then left in the friend’s car, taking the bag of cash and the murder weapon.
The hammer, which was wrapped in a plastic bag, was dumped in the trench at the corner of Stone Avenue and Fourth Street, Campbellville.
Detectives found signs that the killers had washed off blood in two sinks in the Doobay property. They also lifted a partial print from two glasses in the kitchen sink.
Kaieteur News was told that Mrs. Doobay was heard ‘cussing’ on the phone earlier in the day.

Another person said that he saw a silver-coloured car at Doobay’s home around 15:00 hours on the day she was slain.
The murder plot reportedly began to unravel last week, after phone records revealed that Mrs. Doobay had received a call from a friend on the afternoon that she was killed. Mrs. Doobay reportedly told the friend that her nephew, ‘Mark’ and a friend were there.
Police then arrested the nephew, who at first denied that he had entered Mrs. Doobay’s house on the day she was killed. However, he reportedly then admitted that he and a friend, whom he identified, had visited Mrs. Doobay around 14:00 hrs on the fateful day.
Yesterday’s drama at Stone Avenue began at around 13:00 hrs, after several detectives, accompanied by the two handcuffed suspects, arrived at the scene.
A senior crime scene investigator lowered a metal detector attached to a string into the trench. Two ranks then entered the trench and began the search in the area where the suspects claimed they had dumped the weapon. However, an hour elapsed without anything being found.
By then, a crowd began to gather and some onlookers began to hurl remarks at the suspects. Some suggested that the suspects assist in the search.
After another fruitless hour had passed, some of the detectives left the scene in a pickup, but returned shortly after with three vagrants.
Stripping to their underwear, the vagrants entered the trench and in less than ten minutes, one of the men held the plastic-wrapped hammer aloft.
They were paid $1,000 each for their efforts.
Meanwhile, speaking to Kaieteur News yesterday, a close relative of Mrs. Doobay’s nephew told Kaieteur News that a number of “black clothes” ranks came to their home on Sunday. According to the relative, the ranks kicked open the door and began asking “for the crowbar and the hammer”. They then took Mrs. Doobay’s nephew into custody and also took a hammer and other tools with them.
The relative told Kaieteur News that she had not observed anything amiss. However, she said that Singh had been drinking heavily between Monday and Wednesday.
The body of 58-year-old Sharanie Doobay was found lying in a pool of blood near the kitchen of the Doobays’ two-storey Echilibar Villas, Campbellville residence last week Tuesday. She had been repeatedly struck in the head with a blunt instrument. Strands of human hair were retrieved from her right hand.
Her husband, Head of Internal Medicine at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Dr. Ramsundar Doobay, accompanied by his nephew, arrived home at around 16:30 hours. He called repeatedly for his wife to open the door but got no answer.
He eventually sought assistance from his nephew to remove a few panes from a window on the upper flat, since those in the lower flat were reinforced with metal grills. The nephew then climbed through the window, and entered the bottom flat, where he made the gruesome discovery.
Police had left no stone unturned in trying to find Mrs. Doobay’s killers.

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