Local cops hunt killer of Trinidadian attorney’s daughter

Apr 28, 2012 News

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– suspect reportedly hiding out here
Local police have joined in the manhunt for a Guyanese construction worker who is wanted for

the gruesome murder of Nikita Ramischand, the daughter of a prominent Trinidadian attorney.
Kaieteur News understands that police have received information that the suspect, 25-year-old Ramesh Sookram, called ‘Alan’, fled to Guyana the day after Ramischand’s mutilated body was found at Maracas, Trinidad.
A source said that information indicated that he entered Guyana around 01:00 hrs on Thursday.
Detectives reportedly questioned Sookram’s mother at the woman’s Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara home, but learned nothing of the fugitive’s whereabouts. INTERPOL has also been notified.
Ramischand is the daughter of prominent Trinidadian attorney Odai Ramischand. She is also the niece of Attorney General Anil Nandlall.
Reports out of Trinidad said that the teen was attacked near her mother’s salon in Maracas on Wednesday night. Her throat was slit and she was stabbed several times in the abdomen.
According to a report in the Trinidad Newsday, investigators believe the suspect was obsessed with Nikita, who rejected his marriage proposal a few weeks ago.
Newsday quoted Deputy Police Commissioner Mervyn Richardson as expressing optimism that the case would be solved, “since we know who killed Nikita and we know who we are searching for.” He said investigators expect to detain the suspect, whose last known address was Felicity in Central Trinidad.
According to the Trinidad media, Nikita, a second-year ACCA student of the School of Business and Computer Sciences (SBCS), worked at Casa de Belize, a salon her mother Shariza operated next to the family home at LP 46 Maracas Royal Road, Maracas, St Joseph.
She was supposed to attend to a client at the salon about 7 pm on Wednesday. Police believe that while walking to the salon, Nikita was ambushed by the suspect who dragged her behind the premises where he slit her throat and stabbed her in her abdomen. They believe that the killer used a kitchen knife.
The Newsday said that the victim’s mother told police that she did not hear any screams or any strange noises, but when Nikita failed to arrive at the salon she became suspicious and began calling her cell phone.
When the calls went unanswered, Shariza, her husband, Odai, their eldest son, Sid, and another brother and sisters began searching for Nikita.
They found her bloodied body behind the salon at about 8 pm.
Police believe the killer scaled a ten foot razor-edged wire fence, located on the northern side of the Ramischand family home, where he hid and waited for Nikita. Bloodstains were reportedly found on the fence.
Homicide officers were called in as well as District Medical Officer Dr. Richards who instructed that Nikita’s body be taken to the Forensic Science Centre, St. James for an autopsy which was done yesterday.
An autopsy, performed by pathologist Dr. Eastlyn McDonald-Burris, revealed that Nikita bled to death after her throat was slit. She also received six stab wounds to the abdomen.
According to the Trinidad Newsday, Sid, Nikita’s eldest brother, yesterday said Nikita was considered “the baby” of the family and lived a sheltered life.
He said that three months ago, his father hired construction workers to work on the property where they lived and it was there that Nikita met the suspect. He said the two spoke frequently on the phone and when the suspect asked Nikita to get married a few weeks ago, she refused.
The newspaper quoted the brother as saying that the suspect began making threatening phone calls to Nikita. Three weeks ago, the suspect scaled the razor-wire fence, entered the property and began threatening his sister.
It was only when Nikita said that she would call the police that the suspect left. Sid added that his sister started a new relationship and believes that this may have angered the suspect. He believes Nikita was being stalked.
He called on the police to find her killer.
“My sister was such a brilliant student who passed her exams with flying colours and we know she had a bright future ahead of her. But now that she has been snatched away from us, it seems like a bad nightmare but we are all trying to deal with this and we know that our love for each other will pull us through,” Sid told the Trinidad Newsday
Police officers returned to the murder scene yesterday and searched for clues. Nikita’s father, Odai, remained indoors. Members of the legal fraternity expressed their condolences to Odai and his family and senior police officers pledged to do everything to bring the killer to justice.
Odai, who was born in Guyana, has been practising law in Trinidad for decades.

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