The case of the murdered goatherd

Sep 22, 2013 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

On October 12, 2001, as she had done since her husband’s death, Savitri Prasad left her home to collect her herd of goats.
But this time, she did not return.
It was unusual for Prasad, called ‘Aunty Glory’ not to be at home by 17:00 hours, and so when 18:00 hrs passed and she still had not shown up, her three daughters began to worry.
One of the daughters went to her aunt’s home to enquire about their mother’s whereabouts, but that aunt said that she had not seen Prasad.
As news of ‘Aunty Glory’s’ disappearance spread around her hometown, Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo, villagers began gathering at her home.
Not understanding how someone could have disappeared in their quiet and peaceful village, residents formed a search party.
Deep into the night, close relatives and friends along with villagers combed Zeelugt village in search of the mother of three.
Indrouty Mana, one of Prasad’s sisters, had said that when one of her nieces called to enquire about their mother, she became annoyed.
“I usually pass she at Silk Cotton dam near a light post in the afternoons waiting for her goats. But that particular day, I went home early so I didn’t see she. Night did done fall when one of she daughter come by me and ask me if I see she. From the time she ask me that, I realised that something wrong.”
The niece also said that their mother had gone to collect the goats since earlier that day but had not returned.
“She tell me that she mammy left about 3:30 in the morning fuh go for the goats and that dem can’t find she. Right away we start asking people in the area, but nobody ain’t know where she gone. People tell we that dem see she standing at the light post, but them ain’t know when she move from deh.”
After the search ended that evening, the missing woman’s sister and other relatives went to the Leonora Police Station and made a report.
The following morning, October 13, at about 06:30 hrs, the search party again began their search for the 48-year-old woman.
“Every morning she does open the goats dem and dem does go down by Boerasirie Creek side to graze, and when afternoon reach dem does find dem way to the public road where she does be waiting for them,” Mana said.
She said that as the persons searched they ended up at Boerasirie Creek.
Upon arrival there, one of the villagers saw what looked like a red shirt floating.
A short distance away, another villager found a pair of underwear and a red flag.
Knowing that the woman had left home wearing a red checkered shirt, the villagers took a long piece of wood and attempted to pull the item to shore.
As they did so, they realised that it was not only a shirt; it was the missing woman.
By the time the dead woman’s close relatives reached the creek, the police had already covered the body and were preparing to take it to the funeral parlour.
“Oh my gosh! When I hear that dem find she I couldn’t believe it. She doesn’t go to the back there. I don’t know how she end up there. Since she husband died about two years before the incident I did tell she to sell out dem goat but she tell me that if she sell dem she gun feel like if she selling she husband out, because he buy dem for she. He was a headmaster,” the woman’s sister said.
She said that after her eldest sister’s body was found, the police took some ‘sniffer dogs’ in the area.
According to the woman, her sister’s post mortem revealed that she had died from a broken neck.
Her body bore wounds to the right side of the head, face and left forearm. Police had already ruled out robbery as a motive for the killing, since Prasad was still wearing her two gold rings when her body was discovered.
Two days after her death, investigators detained a Guysuco ranger. His long boots and gloves were taken and examined for possible evidence.
Residents had told police that the ranger was in the Boerasirie Creek area the day Prasad disappeared and claimed that he was acting in a suspicious manner the same night.
During interrogation, the ranger reportedly told investigators that he and Prasad had a relationship and that he had no reason to kill her. He also said that he would frequent the woman’s home. But the dead woman’s relatives said that Prasad had no relationship with the ranger, and that they never saw him at the home.
What happened to Savitri Prasad that day is yet to be answered. A close relative told this newspaper that the ranger committed suicide shortly after being released from police custody.
That prompted villagers to believe that he might have indeed killed the woman.
“My sister was a good woman and a good mother,” her sibling recounted. “She and everybody used to live good. She never used to get into any problem. Today she three daughter left without a mother and a father. She didn’t deserve to die like that.”

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