Berbice mother beaten and burnt to death…Daughter’s ex-lover detained

Jan 05, 2016 News

---

 – “Dem beat she till she lose she sense – son”

Detectives are hoping that an ex-cop that they had charged two years ago with the execution-style murder of

one woman can lead them to the men who killed another woman in equally savage fashion last Sunday.
That second victim is 49-year-old Anita Baichan, who was bound, gagged and left to die in her burning house at Plantation Hope, West Coast Berbice.
Her son, who was also bound and left in the same house, escaped to talk about the ordeal.
Police confirmed last night that they have detained the ex-cop and that he is a former boyfriend of one of Mrs. Baichan’s daughters.
Several other individuals have also been detained, police said, while stressing that they are examining a number of motives other than robbery.
The ex-policeman and another man were charged in 2014 in connection with the execution-style murder of a woman and the wounding of her sister. The victim, a mother of four, was shot in her head while her sister was shot to her abdomen.
The matter against the two suspects was discharged in December 2014.
Kaieteur News has confirmed that the daughter who is said to have been the 28-year-old former policeman’s ex-girlfriend lives overseas. The daughter, who is a teacher, returned to Guyana some hours after her mother was slain.
Moshim Khan, the son who escaped from the burning home after being bound, has alleged that the two masked intruders had inquired about “the teacher girl.”
CHOPPED IN HIS SLEEP
As he sat quietly on a chair surrounded by relatives, Moshim Khan, yesterday recalled that he

and his mother went to bed around 21:00 hrs on Saturday after watching a movie.
Khan, his mother and sister, Natasha resided at the Lot 23-362 Plantation Hope, West Berbice property.
At the time of the robbery, his sister- a teacher was scheduled to return to Guyana from the United States of America at 08:00 hrs the following day, Sunday.
“I deh sleeping and I feel a sharp lash around my eye and before meh could open meh eye, meh feel another one and then me see a man standing in front of me with a cutlass to my neck and he said to me, ‘Don’t make noise,’. Then I realized someone chopping meh in me sleep,” Khan recalled.
He said that the intruder, who had a jersey tied around his mouth, tied him up with strips of cloth.
“He hold me and pull me down the bed and he jump on meh and keep on asking fa money.”
According to Khan, he had no idea there was a second intruder in the house until his cutlass-wielding attacker dragged him to his mother’s room.
“He throw meh down on the floor and dragged me to the front room. As me go there now me mom deh on the ground and them stamping on she chest and asking for money. Them tie she up.”
He saw that his mother was bleeding from under her arm and her face was swollen and she was crying out for pain.
“Me mommy crying and telling them that we na got a lot of money and one of them jumped

on she chest and she tell them to check in the wardrobe. Dem search and dem find some money and then dem seh that them want more,” Khan said.
“Dem demand money and gold; dem start beat me and broadside meh and lashing me and me mother wid de cutlass. Dem search and find some more money and start beating us up more bad. Dem beat me and me black out. When me wake up, them still beating meh,” Khan said.
In total, the men escaped with close to $150,000.
As the bandits terrorized both mother and son, Khan said that one of the men told him that they heard a teacher resided at the home but he lied and told them that his sister, who is a teacher, was married and that she was living with her husband.
“Them tell me that dem gun kill me if me don’t tell them where all the money and gold deh…Dem search and find duct tape and dem tape we up. Them find a laptop and ask me if it working. Me say me don’t know and them take it and lash meh in me head and break it and then dem find some old phones and them pelt me with dem.”
According to Khan, when he looked at his mother, she was bleeding from her face and she was crying out in pain continuously. He said that she was losing consciousness too.
“Meh asked dem to give me some Limacol to rub it on her and he (bandit) went and get it so meh stretch meh hand to collect it but he started making fun of us and he open it and throw it all over we and he take cream and spray it on us and then one of them take a drink from the fridge and throw it on we. Them went mocking we when we begging for we life,” the son said.
The traumatized young man said that the two men ‘smoked weed’ and blew the smoke on their faces.
He said that just before leaving, the bandits stated that they would burn the house with the victims inside.
“We didn’t think them would burn the house but them walk with their own gasoline. Them throw it on a bed downstairs and set it on fire. After a while, meh feel the heat and meh tell mommy and she tell meh to go downstairs and throw water.”
With his hands still bound at the front, Khan said he removed the duct tape from his mother’s mouth. They then began to scream for help, but no one heard them since the houses in the area are far apart.
“Me tell meh mommy that we have to go downstairs now and she tell meh to go first but meh tell she that meh na leave she alone,” Khan said.
He added that because his mother was tortured so much, she could hardly move.
“Meh dragged a little and then meh turn and pull she and then ah drag and pull she,” Khan said.
“When we reach the step, meh roll down and meh tell she meh coming back. Me went to the back door and meh try to cut the duct tape (on his hands and feet) on the concrete but it na really loose out so meh roll and dragged out the gas bottle from the house before it explode.”
But before he could return for his mother, the fire had already engulfed her.
By then, he said their nearest neighbour had heard them and came to the rescue.
“The man cut the duct tape and we try to go save mommy but it was too late. She was already burn up.”
Police are awaiting a postmortem to ascertain whether the woman was slain before her home was torched.

---

---