Man who killed wife, stuffed remains in barrel pleads guilty to manslaughter

Dec 15, 2022 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

Kaieteur News – The man who killed his reputed wife then stuffed her remains in a barrel in April 2020, has pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.

Suraj Veersammy called ‘Rabbit’ pleaded guilty at the Berbice High Court before Justice Navindra Singh for killing his reputed wife, Devika Bikram Narinedatt called ‘Vanessa’ of Zeelugt, East Bank Demerara.

Suraj Veersammy called ‘Rabbit’

Veersammy was charged previously with the capital offense of murder but opted to take a plea of guilty for the lesser count yesterday. The charge read that on April 9 2022, Veersammy unlawfully killed Narinedatt, 24. Sentencing was deferred to January 2023 where a probation report will be prepared and read for Veersammy.

Devika Bikram Narinedatt called “Vanessa”

A post mortem examination was performed on the woman’s body by Dr. Nehaul Singh who gave the cause of death as asphyxiation due to compound injuries to neck and blunt trauma to the back of head. Suraj Veersammy was captured at the Dharm Shala Shelter for the abandoned, located at Canje by police acting on information. He had gone into hiding after a Villager in Hampshire discovered the gruesome remains of the woman stuffed in a blue barrel and dumped in a trench near the R&S Street, Hampshire Corentyne back in 2020.

The body was already in an advanced state of decomposition and had a bed sheet tied around the neck. The corpse was later identified as that Devika Narainedat, Veerasammy’s girlfriend for over five months. In police custody Veersammy confessed that he and ‘Vanessa’ had an argument over her decision to leave him. He became angry and assaulted her before tying a bed sheet to a rafter in their one-storey wooden home and hanging her. He said he then cut her body down hours later (when it was dark) and dumped it in a blue barrel they had in the house. He then mounted it on his bicycle to discard of it, but one of his bicycle’s wheels got punctured and he decided to instead roll the barrel in the trench located just a street away from the home he shared with her. Four days later a Cane Harvester made the discovery.