The house of horror murders

Sep 04, 2011 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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By Michael Jordan

Take a trek up the West Bank Demerara Public Road to Goed Intent, and you will see a large, empty lot, overgrown with weeds and with a solitary mango tree on the western side.
That empty lot has a gruesome history. Blood was spilled on that land, and to this day, no one knows for sure who did it or why.
Back in 1997, there was a two-bedroom house on that property. In it lived 67-year-old Alice Persaud, her mentally handicapped son, 35-year-old Joseph Allen, and a daughter, Rita.
The elderly woman eked out a living by begging in the community.
She would often share a bottle of high-wine with her few female friends and cook for them on her firewood stove.
Two of those close friends were 45-year-old Caroline Moore and Joyce Walker, a neighbour who operated a roadside stall.
From all accounts, Mrs. Persaud was last seen alive on Saturday, March 1, 1997, when she told her friend, Joyce Walker, that she was going out to raise some money.
On Sunday, March 2, 1997, Mrs. Walker observed that the door of the property was closed and that there was no sign of the occupants.
The following day, at around three o’clock in the afternoon, Joyce Walker again observed that her friend’s door was still shut and that the occupants were nowhere in sight.
This time, Mrs. Walker became certain that something was amiss and decided to check on her friend. She instructed her 13-year-old daughter to peep through a crease by the front door to see if the family was alright.
Standing nearby, Joyce Walker saw her daughter peep into the silent house and then recoil in horror.
The teen then burst into tears and ran from the yard without telling her mother what had upset her.
A perplexed Mrs. Walker then decided to look in the house. She too was shocked by what she saw.
Lying on the hallway floor was the naked and bloated body of Alice Persaud. Her son, Joseph Allen lay on his side by the door.
He too, was clearly dead. Mrs. Persaud’s friend, 45-year-old Caroline Moore, lay naked, bloated and dead by one of the doorways.
Mrs. Walker immediately called the police.
It didn’t take the detectives long to conclude that someone had bashed in the skulls of the three victims.
Two bloodstained lengths of wood near Allen’s body appeared to be the murder weapons.
Police believe that the killer sexually assaulted the two women before clubbing them to death.
Rita, the daughter who had lived on the premises, had escaped a similar fate because she had been away from the premises for a few days.
From the state of the bodies, it was estimated that the victims had been dead for about three days. None of the neighbours could recall hearing any unusual sounds coming from Persaud’s house or noticing any strangers entering the property.
Robbery did not appear to be a motive. For one thing, the occupants were poor. Secondly, according to another daughter, the killers had left $5,000 untouched in the house.
Detectives now had to find a theory and a suspect. After questioning some neighbours, they arrested a canecutter and his son.
According to Joyce Walker, the canecutter would occasionally visit Persaud’s home to see the woman’s daughter, Rita.
He was married. He was a quiet person who would “take his little drinks”.
Rosaline Bagot, another daughter, confirmed that her mother and the suitor were not on good terms. From all reports, the boyfriend had a habit of dropping in when the daughter was not at home. When he did, the elderly woman would sometimes chase him from the property.
On the morning of Thursday, February 27, 1997, the canecutter allegedly went to Alice Persaud’s house.
He reportedly left after Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Persaud “cussed him out”.
According to Mrs. Walker, the labourer then went to a nearby shop where he pawned his cutlass for a bottle of liquor.
It is believed that he then returned to Mrs. Persaud’s house, since an empty liquor bottle, similar to the one that the suspect had purchased, was found near the bodies.
Mrs. Walker is convinced that the suspect bludgeoned the three victims.
Persaud’s daughter, though, thinks otherwise.
“I don’t think any one man could kill three people at one time,” she told me. However, some villagers surmised that the killings might have been the work of drug addicts who lived in the neighbourhood.
But the investigators were unable to link the canecutter and his son to the triple murder and had no option but to release them.
Fourteen years have passed since Alice Persaud, Joseph Allen and Caroline Moore were bludgeoned to death. To this day, it is still the most brutal crime to have occurred in the community.
To this day, also, the ‘house of horror murders’ remain unsolved.

If you have any information about this or any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office. Our numbers are 22-58458, 22-58465, 22-58482 and 22-58491. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: [email protected]

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