Latest update January 20th, 2025 4:00 AM
Body stuffed in barrel… Suspect confesses to killing lover then dumping her in trench
By Malisa Playter-Harry
After being in police custody for several hours, the suspect held in the ‘body stuffed in barrel’ case in Berbice confessed to the crime. This was last evening confirmed by police ranks.
Suraj Veerasammy and Vanessa in happier times
This publication understands that the man confessed to attacking the woman and then tying her neck with a bed sheet which he strapped to a rafter of the house they shared. This he said happened around 3pm Wednesday.
It was revealed that the man told detectives that he waited until he believed that the woman had suffocated before untying her body and stuffing it into a blue barrel.
The man said that he carried out the deadly act because the woman had threatened to leave him.
Kaieteur News was told too that the man attempted to dispose of the woman’s body inside the barrel by transporting it on his bicycle. However, his plans changed when one of his bicycle wheels got punctured. As a result, he decided to throw the barrel in the trench where the woman’s body was later found.
Prior to his confession, investigators on the Corentyne were working around the clock on the case which was then an alleged murder of a woman said to be a Venezuelan.
When her body was found stuffed, head first, in the barrel dumped in a trench situated alongside R&S Street, Belvedere, Corentyne, it was in a state of decomposition and riddled with marks of violence.
The woman has since been identified as 23-year-old Devika ‘Vanessa’ Vickram of Lot 361 Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo. She along with her partner, Suraj Veerasammy, who moved into the community a few months ago were not seen since Wednesday and police, who were on the hunt for him, found him at the Dharm Shala located at Fort Canje under the Canje Bridge (home for abandoned persons) based on information provided to them.
Veerasammy had denied then that he killed the woman. He’d insisted that he found Vanessa hanging from a bed sheet Wednesday night in the home which they shared and that he took her down and decided to put her body in the barrel and “roll it out somewhere to discard it”.
According to police sources, the suspect said that after rolling it out from the street, he became tired and decided to roll it in the trench. The body was discovered by a cane harvester who lives nearby.
The house which the couple shared.
Kaieteur News was told that Veerasammy ahead of confessing, too, admitted that they had an argument Wednesday night with the woman but he said he left the house and when he returned, he saw her hanging. But police ranks did not buy this version of what took place since there were visible marks of violence on the body. The face was battered beyond recognition.
Veersammy told police that he was released from prison in November and he sought refuge at the Dharm Shala and it was there that he met “Vanessa” who was also staying there. They struck up a relationship and decided to leave the shelter and try to make it on their own. It was after they left that he took “Vanessa” and introduced her to his mother, Sattie Veerasammy. They then found a place to rent in Belvedere soon after. While he admitted that they argued a lot as a couple, he blamed it on her “nagging a lot”.
Police were expected to take him back to the house he shared with the woman yesterday afternoon as part of an investigation into the matter. It is believed that the man decided to confess afterwards.
The badly decomposed and battered body of the woman was discovered on Saturday. It was clad in a green and white strap dress. The body is presently at the Bailey’s Funeral Home awaiting a post mortem.
This publication understands that a post mortem is scheduled for today after which legal advice will be sought.
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