Murder/suicide rocks Belmont

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy and his seven-year-old sister stood as witnesses, when their enraged father brutally stabbed their mother to death in the street at Belmont, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara on Thursday.

Dead is Darmattie Persaud, 23, also known as ‘Kalvina’, a housewife.
Her alleged assailant who was under guard at the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was taken after he ingested a poisonous substance, died hours after.
Guyana Chronicle was informed that the woman sustained years of abuse by the man with whom she has two children.
A few weeks ago, the two had a misunderstanding and the woman was abused and she took a decision to leave her children behind and went to stay with her sister at Leonora, West Coast Demerara.

When the new school term recommenced, the children were unable to return to school because of financial reasons.
On Thursday, the man telephoned Persaud and instructed her to come and collect her children from the house which they shared. The house is said to be the property of the suspect’s mother.
As the woman arrived in a taxi to take the children from the home, the man advanced to the vehicle, pulled the woman out of the car and began stabbing her about the body, including her head.

Persons nearby rushed to the scene as she screamed “murder”. She collapsed and died on the roadway in the presence of her children.
After committing the act, he retreated to his home and ingested a poisonous substance. Police on arrival at the scene quickly rushed him to the hospital.
According to the mother of the dead woman, the arguments between the couple usually stem from the assailant’s inability to honour his responsibilities as a father and the head of the home.

During the years of abuse, the woman reportedly received cuts to her abdomen, chest and other parts of the body, this newspaper was told.
Persaud, on several occasions, reported her husband to the police but it is not clear what came out of those reports.
On other occasions, she would go to her mother’s home and that of her other relatives but each time her reputed husband would show up and request that she should return home and she would comply.

However, after the last bout of abuse, the woman went to her sister’s home, making it difficult for the financially-strapped man to show up there.
This publication was told that the man worked with rice farmers from the area and would be employed during planting and harvesting.

Due to the frequent misunderstandings between the two, his side of the family and the family of the dead woman do not communicate with each other.
When Guyana Chronicle visited the scene, the body of the woman was lying on the parapet covered with a sheet, even as the police did their work under the eyes of dozens of enraged and curious family members and villagers.