A woman was murdered every month in 2017

Jan 08, 2018 News

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A 73-year-old woman is set alight by her own son. A teenage girl is battered to death with a rock in a cemetery.
A farmer’s wife is strangled and buried near a row of freshly-planted crops.
A drug-addicted intruder buried an 18-month-old girl alive after ripping out her earrings and throwing her through a window.
They were among several females that were slain by boyfriends, husbands, relatives and acquaintances, during practically every month of last year.
Some of the killers were captured, a few chose to take their own lives, and, in one case, the killer(s) are still unknown.
In late March, police dug up the decomposed body of 39-year-old Lilwantie Balack, from the backyard of the Lot 117 Mibicuri North, Black Bush Polder home where she had lived with her husband.
Police believe that Balack was strangled on September 6, 2016. Her husband, Sunil Datt Balack, had allegedly given the couple’s three children conflicting reports about her whereabouts, including claiming she had run off with a man to the United States.
The woman’s horrible fate only came to light on Wednesday after her daughters, who had become increasingly suspicious, contacted the police.
Police eventually charged her husband, allegedly after obtaining a confession.
The gruesome killings continued in June, with a jealous reputed husband chopping and battering his spouse to death at their Sheet Anchor, East Canje, Berbice home.
Mintie Karamchand, 40, sustained slashed wrists and ankles and was clobbered with a piece of wood on her head until she inhaled her last breath.
Her reputed husband, Goldburn Oswald December, fled the scene, but on July 18, police found his decomposed body hanging from a tree near the Canje River.
December and Karamchand had lived together for 24 years and separated some eight years ago.
December, who was unemployed, migrated to neighbouring Suriname leaving the woman to provide and take care of their five children. He was reportedly deported back to Guyana just over a month prior to the killing, and was staying at the Sheet Anchor residence with Karamchand.

However according to their daughter, Drucilla, they were not romantically involved since her mother had moved on. This sparked jealousy, and arguments were frequent within the home.
On July 29, Ryan Singh, 25, allegedly slit the throat of his 17-year-old common-law wife, Rosanna Lakhpal, at her Number Two Village, East Canje home.
The suspect was allegedly evicted from the home two days prior to the killing. The couple was said to be involved in frequent fights and arguments over the 25-year-old’s drug habit and unemployment.
Ryan Singh was eventually captured and charged.
On October 3, residents in the vicinity of Albert Street and South Road, Bourda, awoke to the shocking news that two elderly, church-going women had been murdered in their home.
Constance Fraser, 89, and 77-year-old Phyllis Caesar, were bound, gagged and slain in their Lot 243 Albert Street and South Road residence.
The women were members of the South Road Full Gospel Assembly, located a few doors from their home.
The home was also ransacked.
Mrs. Caesar acted as caretaker for the church, and had the code for the church alarm. She also kept the keys for a nearby school in Regent Street.
On October 11, Imran Khan, called Christopher Khan, 25, of Independence Boulevard, Albouystown; Steven Andrews, 26, of 86 Hunter Street, Albouystown and Phillip Suffrien, 23 of 66 Hunter Street, Albouystown, were charged and remanded for the double murder.

Khan’s girlfriend, Seeta Khan, 36, of Lot 142 Cooper Street, Albouystown, was charged for possession of stolen property.
On August 11, depressed over his failing business, 47-year-old Rudolph Blair called ‘Rudy’, stabbed his wife Rhonda Blair to death, before shooting and killing himself at Cumberland Village, East Canje Berbice.
Rhonda Blair’s body, with multiple stab wounds, was found lying in a pool of blood in her yard.
Rudolph Blair fled to the back of a neighbour’s yard. He refused to surrender, despite pleas from relatives and police ranks. He was later found dead with gunshot wounds to the chest and lower left ear.
Police retrieved his licenced .32 Taurus revolver near the corpse.
The couple had owned a string of Stretch ‘D’ Dollar stores, and had originally lived together at Cumberland. But after the husband became abusive, his wife left their matrimonial home and sought refuge at a friend Jonelle Dover’s house, in Ithaca Village, West Coast Berbice.
There were reports that Mr. Blair had always been threatening to kill himself.
He reportedly confided in the source that he was desirous of selling his Pitt Street business to pay off his outstanding loans that were burdensome to his family. However his wife was not in support of this, she wanted him to keep the business going, even with them being buried in debt. They were reportedly going bankrupt.
He had reportedly told the source, with his licensed revolver in hand, that, “I get a mind fuh kick Rhonda from the step to the gate and kill mehself”.

September1, 2017 began with an even more heinous case.
A drug addicted man sneaked into a relative’s house at Lot 98 North Sophia, Georgetown. He then snatched an 18-month-old girl from her bedroom, flung her out of a window, then buried alive to hide his tracks.
Before killing the child, the suspect, 20-year-old Sherwyn Roberts, who was recently released from prison, allegedly ripped a pair of gold earrings from the victim’s ears. He was arrested at his ‘B’ Field Sophia home shortly after, and has since been charged.
On October 5, 2017, intoxicated and out of work pork-knocker Clayton Anthony, also called “Woody,” butchered his lover, Police Sergeant 19467 Kenisha Sheriff-Fraser, in her Number 30 Village, West Coast Berbice home.
He then hanged himself.
The body of 39-year-old Sheriff-Fraser, with her chest and stomach sliced open, and chop wounds to the forehead, left temple and limbs, was found on her bedroom floor in her West Coast Berbice home.
A bloodstained cutlass was found near the body.
Her 42-year-old lover, Clayton Anthony, who lived in the bottom flat, was later found hanging from a tree in the Village.

THE KEISHA BRANCHE MURDER
On November 5, in a case somehow reminiscent of the 1993 Monica Reece slaying, Kescia Branche, a 22-year-old teacher, was found battered an unconscious on the roadside at Louisa Row.
She died a few days later. With then Crime Chief Paul Williams pleading for patience and vowing that the case would be solved, detectives detained several suspects, including three police ranks who were with Branche some hours before she was found injured.

In early December, they eventually arrested and charged 47-year-old taxi driver Mathew Munroe, after he returned from overseas. Investigators have also impounded his car.

BLOODY DECEMBER
The quiet Sunday of December 3, 2017, afternoon ended on a gruesome note 36-year-old GuySuCo labourer, Krishna Latchman, stabbed his reputed wife, Indrawattie Totaram, 40, to death before hanging himself in the couple’s one bedroom home at Lot 26 Third Street, Williamsburgh, Corentyne, Berbice.
Totaram was found at around 18:00 hrs with multiple stab wounds on a blood soaked mattress, while Latchman, clad in his underwear, was found hanging from a rope tied to a beam.
Totaram, the victim, had allegedly left Latchman and eloped with a young man, but returned home some two days ago. It is believed that this may have set the tone for the grisly crime.
After his spouse had eloped, Latchman had reportedly told a relative: “You na worry, nah tek stress, I gon deal with she, I gon bore she up”.
And after Totaram returned home, she confided in another relative that she believed Latchman was planning to kill her.
But no one apparently took her spouse’s threats seriously, since he was portrayed as a ‘quiet man’ by many residents and neighbours. Relatives said that he was a heavy drinker and would leave their home when he imbibed.,
The following day, the body of a 22-year-old part-time waitress Marissa Fraser was found in a trench at No. 5 Village, West Coast Berbice.
The victim, of Lot 24 No. 4 Village, Public Road, West Coast Berbice, had been stabbed about her face and body.
Fraser was last seen imbibing with a group of “village boys” after she left her No. 4 Village residence.
The next day, police detained Odit Thom, a 38-year-old security guard for the barbaric killing.
Thom, who has been charged, allegedly told police that he saw the waitress walking alone along the No.5 Public Road when he approached her and made sexual advances. It was her rejecting his advances that ‘ticked him off’ he told ranks.
A scuffle between him and Fraser ensued and he pulled out the scissors he had on his person and stabbed her 11 times about her body. He then dumped her body in the trench located in a street, near to a burial ground.
A post mortem examination conducted on Fraser’s body revealed that she died as a result of asphyxia and drowning compounded by multiple incise wounds.
Magistrate Rhondel Weaver ordered a psychiatric evaluation for the accused.
On December 12, the body of 18-year-old receptionist Ranella Benfield was found in a cemetery at Triumph, East Coast Demerara. Someone had bashed in her face with a rock.
The gruesome discovery was made around 07:00 hrs, just two days after she was reported missing.
Her murder remains unsolved.
On Christmas Day, the son of 73-year-old Mengree Dahri called ‘Gladys’, allegedly set her alight as she slept in her Lot 143 Gale Street, Annandale, East Coast Demerara residence.
The old woman died three days later and her 43-year-old son, Dewan Dahri, has since been remanded.

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