‘He threatened to kill all of them’ – family friend of 22 years

Apr 25, 2025 News

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Soesdyke triple-murder…

By Shania Williams

Kaieteur News- Years of abuse at the hands of her husband resulted in the death of 26-year-old Maline LaCruz, her mother, 50-year-old Waveney LaCruz and her 17-year-old sister Sueann LaCruz on Wednesday at Waiakabra Village, Soesdyke – Linden Highway.

Maline’s 23-year-old brother, Ceon LaCruz, survived the attack but remains critical at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Maline’s three children, ages eight, five and three, witnessed the killing. They escaped unharmed and were able to alert the villagers of what had transpired.

The gruesome killing of the trio was done by Parmanand Ramdehol, a goldsmith of South Ruimveildt, Georgetown, who later drank a poisonous substance and died.

A family friend of 22 years, Dawn Sampson, who lives in the same village, told Kaieteur News on Thursday that Ramdehol has long threatened to kill the family and even her. She recounted that due to Waveney’s fear for her and her family’s safety, she would, from time to time, stay at the family’s home to keep her company. Luckily, she decided against visiting the LaCruz home Wednesday night.

Constant abuse

A visibly traumatised Sampson told Kaieteur News that Ramdehol is known in the community as a habitual abuser. He had previously been charged with assault and using threatening language against his wife. Despite being placed on bail, he continued to visit the home, as they shared two of the three children.

“Two weeks he spend in the lock-ups from the same incident. He come out and was placed on $120,000 to $150,000 bail and then he come out but she didn’t tell we what happen after when they went back to the next court [date]. The mother tell me she ain’t know what Maline and he discuss but they ain’t talking but he had to stay away but she want the children so she end up talking back to he so he could bring up the children so she could get to see them.  After that he said that he wanted to book a family room going up Timehri hotel and they end up going but she saying that the only way she going up is if she drive the car because she ain’t want he drive away with her,” Sampson recalled while emphasizing that Maline was afraid and fearful for her life while in Ramdehol’s presence.

She described a video of Ramedhol violently assaulting Maline at the hotel in the presence of their children last year.

“They had intercourse and then he beat she up, throw the rum down she throat, and force her to drink it and she must admit if she get any other body and he want she to go back home with he and she said that she not going back home. Eventually she get fuh catch herself and run, but he grabble she back, slammed the car door on her foot. When she come, I had to rush she to the hospital because she face swell up bad.  They had court again but she didn’t attend only he, and he say he gon pay she and she didn’t go back,” Sampson explained.

The distraught woman with tears in her eyes said that the abuse was so frequent that Maline, feeling trapped, began secretly moving her clothes out in portions through her.

“When I used to go by her, she used to give we clothes but we didn’t know that the clothes wasn’t to give away, is she moving out her clothes piece, piece,” she said.

However, when Maline moved out of the home, she opted to return for the sake of her children.  “She said she can’t take it no more; she can’t give he no more chance so she didn’t go back this time,” Sampson stated.

Kaieteur News has learned that since January, Maline moved out of Ramdehol’s home in South Ruimveldt and began living with her mother, sister, and brother, along with her three children at Waiakabra Village. During that time, Ramdehol rarely visited to see the children.

“He would come here once in a blue moon and would just come, spend some weekends.”

Sampson continued, “She (Maline) was going through a lot but she didn’t used to talk everything; she didn’t use to sleep with he. She used to go away and left him.”

However, whenever he visited and stayed over, it made the family, especially Waveney, uneasy.

“The mother didn’t used to want sleep when the night come because after he used to threaten she. So, I used to deh every night with her because them ain’t got no family around here,” Sampson said.

Night of the incident

On the night of the incident, Sampson said that earlier that day, Maline had decided to attend court and later went to a creek with Sueann.

“She gone with her friends them and then she came home.  But when she come home… she and the other sister came home and they went crying and they went junction. When they come back from the junction, and a car bring them and put them off. He (Ramedhol) went behind them. So, she and he had a lil argument outside. She gone inside and he gone in too and when he gone inside that’s when he shoot, she (Marine). He then shoot the mother, the rest of the children them get away by jumping through the window. She (Maline) friend get fuh jump through the window but the other sister that get shoot she didn’t get the chance to [escape] because the other girl (the friend), chuck up by the window because she too big. So, she (Sueann) get shoot in she foot first then he mussy gone over she and finish she off,” Sampson said.

Sampson, who was closely monitored by villagers who had gathered at the home of the deceased and nearby shops, said before Wednesday’s shooting, Ramdehol had threatened to kill himself, but the family pleaded with him not to do so.

“He din threatened to kill himself first but after Maline scrambling with he for don’t drink [ the poison] that’s when he start shooting. The other boy (Ceon) come in when them send to call him,” she said.

That same night, Dawn said she might also have been killed had she visited the family as she usually does. The woman, who was holding a bottle of Limacol and constantly bending her head, told this publication that Ramdehol had previously threatened her life.

“Last night (Wednesday), I was supposed to come to see the mother but I told her that I’m at the school in Timehri and when I finish, I will come and talk with she. When I stand up by the door to go by them… but my mood change and I end up stop and same time my phone ring and I dey coming but if I went inside I could’ve get shoot and dead or I could’ve help somehow and tried to fight too,” she stated.

Heartbreakingly, Sampson revealed that the children, including the three-year-old, witnessed the murder of their family right before their eyes.

“The baby know everything, he talk everything. When they had the incident at the hotel, he used to tell he mommy ‘daddy want kill you… choke you’,” Sampson said.

She disclosed that the children are staying with her cousin and a village pastor. “The younger children are living with one of my cousins further up the road, and the older boy is staying with a pastor,” Sampson said.

A traumatised community

Though Ramdehol was known as abusive, his impulsive actions shocked the community. Sampson disclosed that Ramdehol believed that Maline’s teen sister was too influential in her life.

“We didn’t expect this but I know one time he threatened to kill all of them out especially the small sister …because he said that the girl was a upholder for his wife to be going out every night and suh,” Sampson recalled.

How the couple met

Sampson shared that the couple met when Maline’s eldest son was two years old and were married last year in August. “I follow she to go to him and then I take she hand and put she hand in he hand and I tell he ‘hope you protect my friend and treat her good and as you want a son she will give you a son’. From then they were together,” Sampson told Kaieteur News.

Meanwhile, when Kaieteur News arrived at the victims’ home just after noon, scores of residents were observed sitting under trees talking about the horrific killing. Many questioned the goldsmith’s actions and decried what they perceived to be police inaction.

Inside the flat concrete structure, blood stains were visible all over. Pools of blood were seen near the entrance, another near a room in the vicinity of the windows, where the children escaped, and yet another in the kitchen.

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