The corpse in Mr. Reddy’s hallway

Dec 31, 2017 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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By Michael Jordan
Sixty-one-year-old Permaul Reddy should have seen the corpse the moment he stepped through his front door. After all, it was lying in plain sight in his hallway. But he insists that he didn’t notice the body until minutes later. That’s the answer he gave me as he pointed to the spot where the body had lain.
It’s the same answer he gave the skeptical police almost six years ago.
Perhaps he missed it because, as he told me, he isn’t in the best of health, and his eyes hadn’t quite adjusted from the glare of the afternoon sun. But maybe it was just that his wife, seemingly murdered so easily, was the last person he expected to see lying dead in his hallway.
She was Sita Reddy, a feisty, independent 54-year-old, who made a good living selling poultry that she reared in the backyard of the couple’s property at Lot 139 Second Street, Craig, East Bank Demerara.
The day was Wednesday, February 1, 2012, and Sita Reddy was alone at her Lot 139 Second Street, Craig, East Bank Demerara residence. Her husband was out on business.
Mr. Reddy said that he called his wife around 1:00 p.m., and they spoke for about ten minutes. He said that she asked him to come home early, but as he was driving home, police stopped him near Providence and requested to see his vehicle documents.
Mr. Reddy said that he’d left the documents at the East Bank Demerara firm where he worked, so he returned to collect them. While he was there, he tried to reach his wife by phone. Despite repeated attempts, no one answered, and he caught a bus and headed home.
On arrival, he saw that his front gate was shut. His son lived next door, and his gate was open. Mr. Reddy said he entered the gate, then stepped into his house. He immediately noticed that all of the windows in the bottom were shut. He entered the bottom flat, then used the inner stairway to reach the top flat of the four-bedroom apartment.
It was then that he noticed that the bedroom that his wife occupied was ransacked. However, there was no sign of Mrs. Reddy.
After ‘hollering’ for her and getting no response, Mr. Reddy said he telephoned his daughter, asking her to call the police. He then returned downstairs and this time he saw his wife lying motionless, and in a pool of blood, to the left of the hallway.
Media reports indicated that the poultry seller’s throat was slit, and her body bore stab wounds. The killers had reportedly made off with about $1.5 million in cash, which Mrs. Reddy had saved from her poultry sales. They had also stripped the woman of her jewellery, including an ankle band and several gold rings that she wore. Mr. Reddy said they also took her cellphone.
He immediately alerted a neighbour. The police then arrived.
They began to question Mr. Reddy. He believes that he aroused suspicion because of his statement about walking past the body. The other thing was that they had heard that the couple often quarreled, and were on the brink of a divorce.
Mr. Reddy indicated that his wife had a temper, but they got along well. He also denied that his wife had filed for divorce.
Nevertheless, the police took him into custody. During that time, detectives checked him for injuries. They released him after three days. They also detained two residents who were allegedly seen visiting Mrs. Reddy’s house to purchase chicken prior to her being found dead.
One media report also indicated that police were trying to locate a man who lived in the area. The man’s relatives had alleged that he was in the interior, and had promised to turn him over to the police when he returned.
Mr. Reddy told me that his wife’s poultry customers would first call at the gate. She would then let them in. Those making large purchases would go to the backyard, where she reared her poultry; those making small purchases would order at the front.
Mr. Reddy suggested that his wife had let her killer(s) in. He also suggested that the intruders were people that she knew, so she had to be silenced. He said that he later noticed that someone had broken or cut through a padlock on a grill door at the front entrance.
Mr. Reddy also suggests that the police ignored clues that he had shown them. He said that he had shown them a few cigarette butts and about three plastic cups that someone had left in the front yard.
The widower also suggests that the killers had made a prior visit to his home.
In 2011, someone had reportedly broken into the property when the Reddys were out. That individual had gone straight to Mrs. Reddy’s room in the upper flat and carted off a substantial sum of local and foreign currency that Mrs. Reddy had stashed.
They had also made off with most of her jewellery. They had left other rooms untouched, just as the killers had done.
Mr. Reddy said that after that burglary, his wife had vowed to fight back with any thief she confronted in her home.
If you have any information about this or any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office. Our numbers are 22-58458, 22-58465, 22-58482 and 22-58491. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: [email protected]

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