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M’cony poisoning tragedy…Murder charges for mom who allegedly killed children
Awena Rutherford, the 21-year old who allegedly killed her children by feeding them a poisonous substance, is scheduled to appear in court today to face two charges of murder.
Awena Rutherford
Rutherford was detained at the East La Penitence Police station last week after being released from hospital.
Rutherford allegedly fed her two children half a pellet each of a ‘carbon tablet’, at Perth, Mahaicony, two Thursdays ago, after telling a relative that she “had a surprise” for them.
Jabari Cadogan, 16 months, died at the Mahaicony Cottage Hospital, while his sister, four-year-old Odessa Cadogan, succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Rutherford was also hospitalised after claiming that she too had ingested the deadly rodenticide. A relative suggested that Rutherford may have acted while in a state of depression, after her overseas-based spouse indicated that he was returning to Guyana to take the children from her. A close relative also disclosed that Rutherford had also attempted to kill herself in similar fashion last December.
Relatives reportedly found her lying on her bed with pellets of the deadly rodenticide known as ‘carbon tablets’ on the floor.
Fortunately, the children were not at the residence. On hindsight, a relative said that she believed that the young mother was in urgent need of counseling, and had suffered from occasional seizures, particularly in times of stress.
The relative painted a picture of a troubled and also “own way” young woman from an unstable home.
She dropped out of school without writing her Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations after becoming pregnant. She also lost her mother to a terminal illness a few years ago.
This newspaper understands that Rutherford and her reputed husband had resided for several years at ‘B’ Field, Sophia. However, she later moved to her mother’s home in Perth, Mahaicony.
On the day of the tragedy, Rutherford’s reputed husband had reportedly called his mother earlier in the day and had asked her to keep the children at her Ann’s Grove, East Coast Demerara residence.
Sometime in the afternoon, Rutherford reportedly went to collect the children and took them to her Perth, Mahaicony home, after telling the aunt she “had a surprise for them”.
On arriving at Mahaicony, she allegedly fed the children the ‘carbon tablets’ and also ingested the same poison.
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