Housewife’s bound body found in

Agricola yard – suspect arrested

- British-based survivor identifies female intruder after jumping through window

Police have detained a female member of the Guyana Defence Force in connection with the brutal murder of 55-year-old housewife, Donna Taylor, whose bound body was found at the back of her Lot 16-17 Agricola home shortly after midnight yesterday.
Kaieteur News understands that the 22-year-old army rank is being treated as a prime suspect after a British-based woman, who survived the attack, identified her as one of the individuals who forced their way into the residence.

Murdered: Donna Taylor

Police said a pair of the suspect’s pants appeared to have traces of blood and the garments are to be examined by ranks from the Force’s forensics department.
The woman in custody is the girlfriend of one of the slain woman’s sons.
Taylor’s hands were bound behind her back, her throat was slit, and a piece of cloth was wrapped around her neck. Reports indicate that the mother of four was attacked in her bed around 23:00 hrs on Friday and slain after she was dragged to her backyard.
Samantha Sabat, a 26-year-old British-based citizen who was a guest of the Taylors, escaped by removing the panes from her bedroom window and jumping to the ground from the top flat of the two-storey structure. She was found lying unconscious in the front yard.
Sabat was treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation for a suspected fractured arm and lacerations to her face and other parts of her body.
Kaieteur News understands that Ms. Sabat came to Guyana some three weeks ago for her father’s funeral.
Although Taylor’s home was ransacked and some valuables reportedly stolen, police believe that a rivalry between two young women known to Mrs. Taylor was the motive for the killing.
Investigators also believe the killers ransacked the home to give the impression that robbers had attacked the two women.  Sources said that detectives found no sign of forced entry, although the slain woman’s spouse, Bertram Taylor, suggested that the killers may have entered through his bedroom window after climbing onto a barrel in his yard.
Kaieteur News understands that Sabat has told police that a woman and a man had tried to force their way into her bedroom, and that she had recognized the woman after the individual tried to clamber over her bedroom wall.
According to sources, Sabat has alleged that the intruders had ordered her to open her door. She eventually jumped through her window and was knocked unconscious by the fall.
The two women were alone at home when the attack occurred, since Mrs. Taylor’s husband, Bertram Taylor, was at work.
A tenant in the bottom flat reportedly heard strange noises in the upper flat and contacted the slain woman’s spouse. One tenant who spoke with Kaieteur News recalled hearing a woman’s “shrill scream,” and “muffled footsteps,”in Taylor’s flat.
Mr. Taylor, who is a senior security officer at an East Bank Demerara fishing complex, told Kaieteur News that he received a call shortly after 23:00 hrs on Friday from a tenant who said that his wife “was keeping noise in the house.”
Accompanied by his son, Mr. Taylor said that he immediately rushed home, where he found his British-based guest, Samantha Sabat, lying unconscious in the front yard.
“I shook her and asked her where my wife is, and she said ‘I don’t know’.” Taylor said that on entering his home, he found the premises ransacked. Several louver panes from a window in his bedroom and one in Sabat’s room were missing. His wife was also missing.
Mr. Taylor said that he assumed that his wife had fled from the intruders, and headed to the Ruimveldt Police Station to make a report.  By the time he returned, Mr. Taylor’s son and a neighbour had located Mrs. Taylor’s body in the backyard.
A devastated Mr. Taylor said that a video recorder and about $15,000, along with other small sums of currency were missing. But he, too, said that he believed that robbery was not the real motive for his wife’s murder.
“I lived for over 30 years in this village and nobody ever broke into my house,” he said.