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Ten days later…Port Kaituma Father still silent on tragedy
Lenus La Cruz, who set fire to his house at Port Kaituma two Fridays ago, resulting in the deaths of his wife and four children, has bluntly refused to talk about what happened on that dreadful night.
The 50-year-old businessman who also sustained burn wounds on both legs and arms is hospitalized at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) under police guard.
La Cruz being taken to the GPHC
Yesterday, Kaieteur News was informed that the businessman’s relatives have left a list of names of persons who are authorized to visit the 50-year-old man, with the nurses at the GPHC’s Burns Care Unit.
“They are afraid that a relative of his wife or any angry citizen might enter the ward and try to harm him. They even asked the police not to let him out of his sight,” the source said.
This publication understands that the businessman is hardly interacting with the nurses who are taking care of him. He only interacts with his relatives and according to the source, when it comes to the incident that happened two Fridays ago, La Cruz is not saying anything.
“He is behaving as if he has mental issues. When the nurses talk to him, he just shake his head or murmur but when his relatives are around him, he interacts with them, but again, he says nothing about the incident,” the hospital source said.
An official from the F Division, under which the Port Kaituma District falls, had told this newspaper that a file on the matter is almost complete but investigators are waiting until La Cruz is discharged from the hospital before instituting the charges.
La Cruz is likely to face five counts of murder. It is alleged that the man doused his heavily-grilled home at Port Kaituma with petrol on the night of February 14, last before setting it alight with his wife, Lurlene La Cruz, 39, their daughters, Lea La Cruz, 14; Lavette LaCruz; sons Labron LaCruz, eight, and one-year-old Levon LaCruz inside.
From reports received by Kaieteur News, the tragedy started when the 50-year old businessman, who was under the influence of alcohol, began to scream and curse while claiming that persons owed him money.
Kaieteur News was told that his wife, Lurlene McTurk-LaCruz, was in the habit of securing herself and children in a bedroom whenever Mr. La Cruz was in one of his drunken rages.
Two Fridays ago she reportedly again locked herself and her five children, including Lisa La Cruz, in the bedroom.
It is alleged that Mr. La Cruz went out of the building and switched his generator on and off. He then returned inside and began to bang on the bedroom door and demand that his wife open it.
When she refused, he allegedly shouted, “I going for the gas.”
Kaieteur News was told that Mr. La Cruz had made previous threats to burn his house down, but because he had never carried them out, the family apparently did not take his threats seriously.
However, this time, the businessman reportedly began pouring fuel into the bedroom via a barred window.
A relative had told Kaieteur News that it was then that Mrs. La Cruz instructed her 12-year-old daughter to go to the Port Kaituma Police Station and the child then fled from the building.
However, her report was treated with no urgency by the rank on duty.
The child returned home but by then the building was on fire. She reportedly then alerted other residents who tried in vain to douse the flames and free the victims from the heavily-grilled building.
The remains of La Cruz’s wife and four children were laid to rest last Thursday at Port Kaituma.
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