Two years later… Crane housewife’s killer still to be apprehended

Jul 18, 2016 News

Candy, her daughter and Vidol Rawlins, who is wanted for her murder

The Guyana Police Force has been receiving a lot of praise recently for solving a number of high profile cases.

But relatives of at least one murder victim are not very impressed.

That view may change if only the police can find the man who murdered 30-year-old Candy Rawlins in her bedroom while her 11-year-old daughter slept in an adjoining room.

The woman’s nude body was discovered on her bedroom floor a little before 09:00 hrs on July 18, 2014 by her daughter, who had managed to untie herself after being bound and gagged by the suspect.

Kaieteur News was told that the housewife’s face was wrapped with a mosquito net and bound with duct tape. Her hands were tied behind her back with a sheet.

Investigators found a bloodstained knife – believed to be the murder weapon, next to her body.

The killer is believed to be 44-year-old husband Vidol Anthony Rawlins. He had left a note, in which he claimed that he loved his wife very much and that he regretted his action.
A senior police source who saw the letter said that the carpenter asked for forgiveness from his mother who resides overseas.
The suspect also requested that no one must search for him since he will be with his father who died a few years prior to the murder.

While the motive for the killing is still unclear after almost two years, investigators who have worked on the case believed that it might have been as a result of infidelity.

However, the victim’s daughter had provided police with a statement and a possible motive.

According to a police source, Rawlins’ 11-year-old daughter informed them that she was in her room when she heard her stepfather demanding sex from her mother.
The little girl said that she “did not take the noise too serious” because constant quarrelling was a norm in the home.
“She said she went back to sleep. The next day when she awoke, her stepfather taped her mouth and tied her up in a chair,” a police source explained.
He added that the 11-year-old girl claimed that she managed to untie herself after some time and she ran to her mother’s room.
“When she see her mother, she start scream and she run and call out for the neighbours who then informed us,” the police source said.

The child is now living with her biological father.

There are reports that the 46-year-old suspect; Vidol Anthony Rawlins fled Guyana to neighbouring Suriname a few months ago.

Prior to him leaving the country, it was reported that he was hiding out somewhere in Georgetown at his sister’s residence and in the interior.

While the cops have claimed that they had searched all the suspect’s possible hideouts, the victim’s relatives are not too convinced they did.

Yesterday, a relative of Candy Rawlins, who asked not to be named, said that since the woman was killed, they haven’t heard anything from the cops and she is not too sure the police are still on the lookout for the suspect.

Another relative of the woman, Dale Larose said that after his cousin was killed, the suspect’s sister went to the vacant house which the couple once shared and removed his clothes and working tools.

Reports were also made to the police that the suspect was seen leaving his sister’s home in Albouystown on numerous occasions but when the cops searched the premises, they came up empty handed.

His sister was questioned but claimed that she had no knowledge of her sibling’s whereabouts but the housewife’s relatives are questioning why she removed her brother’s personal belongings if she had no idea where he was.

Larose said, “After he (Vidol Rawlins) killed my cousin, then we hear that he killed he ex-wife and went in jail for seven years before.”
The young man also expressed dissatisfaction with the way the police are investigating this case.
“First of all, after this man killed her, he called a taxi. The police could have gotten a print out of the phone bill and called back the taxi and let the driver direct them to where he dropped off Rawlins,” the relative suggested.

He accused the police of taking their own time to investigate the case.