'Home alone’ murders of elderly women baffle cops
- at least eight unsolved cases between 2009 to 2015
Although they had detained one person, police at Berbice have made no headway in finding the individual who raped and murdered 67-year-old Ramdai Mohabir two Mondays ago.
There’s concern that she may join a list of elderly women whose murders remain unsolved.
Kaieteur News understands that the man who police had questioned was also held for a previous matter, which is still under investigation.
Ramdai Mohabir, 67
According to a source, the suspect was held based on descriptions given by an informant. However, he was subsequently released.
Ramdai Mohabir, called “Aunty Elsie”, 67 was discovered in bed at her Lot 665 Topoo, Albion home by relatives on Monday shortly after 07:30 hrs.
The mother of three was found by relatives who had last seen her around 17:30 hrs the night before, when they went over to her home to take meals for her.
“My mother’s feet were upraised, and there was blood all around,” her daughter, Vinmattie Reddi, recalled.
“Her left side face was swollen (and) her right side neck had a bruise. The two bed sheets were crumpled, as both were under her body. Apparently, she was resisting (her attacker/s). Her neck was swollen and the pillow was found under the bed. She had (had) $6000, (but) that was missing.”
According to a relative, police found a several pairs of female underwear behind the slain woman’s home.
Ramdai Mohabir’s daughter, Vinmattie Reddi, confirmed that her mother was somewhat mentally unstable, but said she knew the names of all those around her and would usually do everything for herself, except cooking.
Yvonne Adam, 75: Strangled in her home in March, 2014 Christmas Eve 2009
She lamented the fact that her mother wanted to live alone although they had offered to let her live with them. To please their mother, they decided to build the one-flat wooden house for her next to her son. Sometimes, she would accept meals through a window and occasionally she would open her door.
Ramdai Mohabir had worked as a fish vendor in her youth.
Meanwhile, at Essequibo, police are still seeking a breakthrough in the murder of 73-year-old Suroogpattie Ramlakan, called “Auntie Carmen”, whose body was found on the floor of her two-bedroom home at Richmond Village, Essequibo last Friday.
Her night dress was pulled above her knees and her neck bore lacerations. There were other injuries that indicated sexual assault. Detectives also found a packet of condoms below a window through which the killer(s) reportedly gained entry. A raincoat was also found at the scene.
Detectives believe that Ramlakan’s killer dragged her off her bed sometime between Thursday night and early Friday morning.
Residents later saw blood dripping from the slain woman’s floor.
Detectives said that the victim was last seen around 19:30 hrs on Thursday.
At least six other elderly women who lived alone were murdered between 2009 and 2015. These cases remain unsolved, although police believe that they know the identity of one of the killers.
Joyce Lewis, 75: Strangled in her home in March, 2014
Three of the victims lived on the East Coast of Demerara, some eleven miles from each other; a fourth lived on the West Bank of Demerara; a fifth in Greater Georgetown and the sixth at Linden.
On Friday, August 28, 2009, Bhemwattie Ram, a resident of La Grange, West Bank Demerara, realised that she had not seen her active and healthy 80-year-old grandmother, Kharpattie Shivnauth, for the day. Shivnauth, called ‘Ma’, lived alone in her Lot 66 Independence Street, La Grange home.
‘Ma’ was an active individual who was usually up and about in her yard by 05:00 hrs. On Fridays, in particular, she would pick flowers and then pray in a small temple in her yard.
The worried grand-daughter contacted the elderly woman’s son, who lived a short distance away.
At around 19:00 hrs, the son, Gopaul Nauth, accompanied by a few other residents, ventured into Shivnauth’s home.
They found Kharpattie Shivnauth lying nude on her bed. Someone had tied her to the bed with strips of cloth. Another piece of cloth was tied around her mouth. It was later revealed that she was suffocated and sexually assaulted. The victim’s gold earrings, gold ring and gold bands were missing.
Shivnauth’s two-bedroom house was ransacked, and the son surmised that the killers made off with cash that his mother had stashed in her home. He speculated that his mother’s killers gained entry by climbing through an open eastern window, which had no panes.
From left: Rajkumarie Mahadeo, 78: Strangled outside her home on Christmas
Eve, 2009. Khirul Najidam, Sukhdai Ramkilaum, 68, Prempattie Ramsundar
Kharpattie Shivnauth was last seen alive on Thursday August 27, 2009, when she had attended a Mandir in the community. A hire car driver had dropped her home at around 20:00 hrs. She had reportedly rested briefly in a hammock under her house before going upstairs.
Almost immediately, police began to focus on a man who lived a few houses from Shivnauth’s.
Relatives alleged that the man was seen acting suspiciously outside the victim’s home on the night on which she was believed to have been slain. About two weeks before her death, the same man had reportedly tried to sell Shivnauth a gold chain. The elderly woman had ordered him off her property.
Relatives described the individual as a drug addict who had recently moved into the area. Someone who knew the suspect also claimed that the man’s jersey and his cutlass were found in Shivnauth’s home. Despite these leads, police were unable to link the man to Shivnauth’s death and eventually released him. No one else was ever detained.
Like Kharpattie Shivnauth, 78-year-old Rajkumarie Mahadeo was also healthy and active.
She also lived alone in her Lusignan, East Coast Demerara abode. She habitually woke up early to tend her cows.
At around 05:45 hrs on Christmas Eve 2009, Mahadeo was found dead on the parapet outside her yard. She was still wearing some of her jewellery when her body was found.
Roger Brandt: Wanted for the March 2011
murder of Khirul Najidam
A post mortem revealed that she had been strangled.
It is alleged that Mahadeo had received some threatening phone calls a few months before she was slain. The individual was questioned but was never charged and no one else was detained.
Mrs. Mahadeo’s children issued a reward for information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of her killers. To date, though, no one has come forward with any information that could result in charges. However, a prime suspect in the case has since died.
In mid-February, 2011, some residents of Enmore, East Coast Demerara, were awakened by a woman’s screams. Those screams seemed to be coming from the Lot 88 Second Street home of 64-year-old Prampattie Ramsundar called ‘Aunty Daro.’
One neighbour peeped through her window and observed that Ramsundar’s front door was ajar. She called out to the elderly woman, but got no answer. When the neighbour peeped outside about an hour later, Ramsundar’s door was closed.
Later in the day, Ramsundar was found dead in the bottom flat of her home. Her hands were bound and a telephone cord was wrapped around her neck. Ramsundar’s house was ransacked and there were ashes inside, indicating that her attackers were smoking in the house.
A sister, who found the body, said that over $500,000 in cash was missing.
According to the sister, there was no sign of forced entry to the victim’s house. She believed that this suggested that her slain sister knew her attacker and willingly opened her door. Later that day, a police tracker dog led investigators to a house some two corners away from the slain woman’s house. The house was reportedly occupied by a man who was often abusive to Ramsundar. The woman’s killer remains unknown.
In early March of 2011, two schoolgirls found the body of 74-year-old Khirul Najidam, called Babloo Saddick, in a store room located in the lower flat of her 1215 Gaulding Place, South Ruimveldt Park residence. She was bound and gagged and her home was ransacked.
Najidam was last seen alive around noon on the same day she was slain.
The victim had operated a small confectionery stand.
One neighbour claimed to have seen three young boys running from the house some time before 15:00hrs, but thought nothing of it, since some persons would often try to steal the woman’s fruits.
But police now believe that they know who killed the elderly fruit seller. In March, 2014, police stated that a fingerprint that detectives lifted from Najidam’s home in 2011 matched that of a Greater Georgetown man with previous arrests, and whose prints police have on file.
Kaieteur News was told that police used the recently-acquired Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) to match the two prints. However, investigators have been unable to locate the suspect, Roger Brandt.
They have issued a wanted bulletin for Brandt, who is of African ancestry and brown in complexion. His last known address is Lot 169 Stevedore Housing Scheme, Georgetown.
In May, 2011, the partly nude body of 68-year-old Sukhdai Ramkilaum, called ‘Mama Rose’ and ‘Rosaline,’ was found in a pool of blood in the bedroom of her Lot 80 Vryheid’s Lust North residence. Her throat had been slit and her home was ransacked.
Like the other victims, Ramkilaum also lived alone.
The dead woman’s nephew, who lived next door, said that the first sign that he and his wife got that something was amiss was when the woman didn’t respond to calls the afternoon before.
His wife then observed blood dripping from the floor boards to the ground below. The nephew then contacted the police, who accompanied him to the house where they made the grisly discovery.
On March 29, 2014, police called to the Amelia’s Ward, Linden home of 76-year-old Yvonne Adams.
They found her in a passageway with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck and hands.
Kaieteur News was told that a gold chain and two rings that Mrs. Adams always wore were missing. There was no sign of forced entry, leading to the suspicion that the victim had let her killer(s) in.
According to reports, Adams who lived alone had not been seen since Friday, March 28, and neighbours reportedly checked on her after she failed to answer her cell and land line phones.
Detectives questioned a 68-year-old male friend of the victim who frequented the victim’s premises, after receiving reports that an individual fitting his description was seen at Mrs. Adam’s front door prior to her body being found. He was subsequently released.
Police said that the same computersied fingerprinting system that helped them to link fugitive Roger Brandt to the March 2011 murder of Khirul Najidam, has helped them to solve the March 26, 2014 murder of 75-year-old Joyce Lewis, who was found strangled in her Lot 3630 Christiani Street, North Ruimveldt home.
Lewis, who lived alone, was found partially nude and bound in the bedroom of her two-storey house around 08.30 hrs, by a relative who ventured into the residence after she repeatedly failed to answer either her cellular or landline phone.
Lewis had reportedly been living alone since her husband, a former Police Inspector, passed away three years ago.
On the morning of March 26, last, a relative had ventured to Lewis’s house after she failed to answer several calls made to both her cellular and landline phones. It was then that her body was discovered.
Five months later, police stated that they matched fingerprints from the victim’s house to Junior Williams also known as Kevin Alfred, a 23-year-old resident of Second Street Crane, West Coast of Demerara. He was subsequently charged and remanded.