Latest update April 18th, 2025 8:12 AM
Niece confessed to involvement in murder of elderly aunt
…Cops hunt neighbour
Kaieteur News – Roshanie Basdeo, the niece of 85-year-old Sumintra Sawh who was brutally murdered on Monday, has confessed to colluding with Sawh’s neighbour to rob and kill the elderly woman for her savings and house.
Kaieteur News understands that the 37-year-old woman confessed on Monday night while in police custody. Investigators are currently on the hunt for the neighbour.
Sawh, known as ‘Aunty Betty’ of Lot 131 Section ‘B’ Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice (WCB) was found laying face up on her bed with blood stains about her body. Investigations revealed that the woman was stabled six times: once each to both sides of the temple, three to the forehead and one to the back of the head.
Sumitra Sawh known as ‘Aunty Betty’
Kaieteur News was reliably informed that Basdeo and Sawh’s neighbour agreed that he would take the woman’s savings amounting to $350,000 and purchase a motor scooter while she would by virtue of her relationship with the woman, covet the house.
Basdeo, who was Sawh’s caretaker, told law investigators that she left Sawh’s door open so that he can gain entry to execute their plan. Sawh was sleeping when the man entered the upper flat of the house and Basdeo led him to the woman’s room and showed him her handbag which contained the money she was saving to build her fence.
The 37-year-old woman told police that the neighbour beat the elderly woman with an object. She claimed that she begged him to stop but he continued to pound the woman. After brutally killing Sawh, the neighbour left her room with the bag containing the money and reportedly scrambled Basdeo by the neck and cut her left hand.
Basdeo told police that the man threatened to kill her and the rest of her family if she revealed their plan to anyone.
However, the woman had initially told police that she arrived at the deceased’s home at about 16:45h on Sunday and at about 19:00h, she and Sawh retired to bed. She told police that Sawh slept in the front bedroom while she slept in the back bedroom of the two-storey wooden and concrete house.
She claimed that she was awakened by an unidentified male, who held a knife to her throat and demanded money at about 03:00h on Monday. Basdeo said the man removed her from the bedroom she was sleeping in. While outside, she said she noticed another man with Sawh in the front bedroom. The woman said she was taken to the lower flat of the house and tied to a chair with a sling. While there she said, she heard Sawh yelling, “Don’t kill me granddaughter”.
Shortly thereafter, the unidentified man who was with Sawh appeared in the lower flat and both men searched the flat before making good their escape.
After their exit, Basdeo said she untied herself and ran to the upper flat of the house and saw Sawh laying motionless on her bed in a pool of blood.
The woman told police that Sawh’s handbag where she kept all her money, pension book and other important documents was missing from the bedroom.
Sawh’s body is presently at the Bailey’s Funeral Parlour awaiting a post mortem examination.
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