Latest update April 18th, 2025 8:12 AM
Execution of Auto dealer’s wife…Daughter goes into hiding, fears for life
Having stood helplessly and watched a gunman pump four bullets into her mother, the daughter of slain businesswoman Patricia Sanasie has gone into hiding, fearful for her life.
The dead woman and her husband in happier times.
Ramona Sanasie, who was with her mother on Monday night when she was gunned down as she was about to enter her yard in Atlantic Gardens, East Coast Demerara, is convinced that her mother’s death was a hit orchestrated by a close family member.
Since the killing, the young woman has been in the protective care of relatives who also told police that they too feared that she could be harmed.
This is despite the fact that her mother’s killer seemed disinterested in her, even while she was screaming as she saw her mother took the bullets.
Robbery has been ruled out, since the killer made no attempt to take anything from the victim, even though she was wearing expensive jewellery at the time.
“This looks like a clear execution. The killer was only interested in killing and making a clean getaway,” a police investigator told this newspaper.
Eyewitnesses said that Patricia Sanasie and her daughter had returned home from a church all the way up at Timehri when the attack occurred. They recalled seeing Mrs. Sanasie come out of the car and opening the gate when a gunman in dark clothing approached her and began shooting.
Residents told Kaieteur News that they heard about four gunshots. They then heard Mrs. Sanasie’s daughter screaming out “Is (named person) do it, is (named person) do it,” apparently suggesting that someone close to the family had planned the hit. They then saw Patricia Sanasie lying lifeless outside her gate.
“All I hear is bam bam bam bam…I don’t think it take ten seconds,” a woman who was the victim’s neighbour and close friend had told reporters.
After the woman slumped to the ground, the gunman entered a waiting motorcar and sped away, leaving the woman’s horrified daughter to summon help from neighbours.
“I hear screams and I see neighbours from all over running (to the scene). “I run over and we drag her into the car, but she did already dead.”
Investigators recovered from the scene two warheads believed to have been fired from a .45 calibre weapon.
They are probing the possible link of the woman’s estranged husband to her death and are hoping to question him soon. However, that appears to be a tall order, since there are reports that the man who has been out of the jurisdiction since before Christmas, has told family members that he is reluctant to return to Guyana for fear that he will be arrested by the police.
The dead woman and her husband Deokaran Sanasie, owner of Ram’s Auto Sales, had been embroiled in a prolonged dispute. The couple was expected to be in court this week for a division of property hearing.
On February 14, 2014, Mr. Sanasie survived an attempt on his life after gunmen shot him outside his Fourth Street, Alberttown business. The husband had accused his spouse of hiring the gunmen to execute him. He provided investigators with a recording of a conversation to support his claims.
The woman had denied the allegations claiming that her husband was delusional and needed psychiatric help. She was never charged.
The woman subsequently obtained a restraining order preventing her husband from coming close to her.
The now dead woman had also provided the police with a recording of her own that spoke of a plot by her husband to kill her. According to reports, the woman had provided the police with the name of an ex-policeman who had claimed that he was paid by her husband to kill her.
Police had arrested the man, but he denied being involved in any execution plot.
But investigators are not only focusing on that angle and are exploring other theories.
“We are not going to put all our eggs in one basket,” one of the investigators told Kaieteur News.
Investigators have reviewed footage from a surveillance camera in the area, but all they were able to obtain was the type of car that the killer used.
This newspaper understands that apart from the woman’s daughter expressing fear for her safety, other relatives have also expressed that concern.
There are reports that the dead woman’s relatives are contemplating taking her body overseas for cremation since they are fearful of coming to Guyana.
This is after a post mortem examination is performed on her remains today.
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