Remorseful after hacking his wife’s 65-year-old uncle to death, a Rio Claro gardener walked away from the murder scene to go home and say goodbye to his five children.
“This is the last time you all will see me because the police will come for me just now,” the 33-year-old suspect told his children before changing his clothes and surrendering to Rio Claro police yesterday morning.
According to reports, the suspect was returning home after hours of drinking and liming with friends, when around 4.40 am when he entered Mookram Kanhai’s home along Mahabalsingh Branch Trace #2, Ecclesville with a cutlass.
He walked into Kanhai’s bedroom and began chopping him as he slept. It was believed the Kanhai got up and attempted to shield his face, but was hand was almost severed and his face severely sliced. The suspect then threw his cutlass in bushes and continued on his way home where he confessed the murder to his wife. Police searched the bushes for the cutlass, but were unsuccessful.
Investigators said the victim told them that he lived on the same acre of land with Kanhai and had asked for electricity, but was denied. Access to Kanhai’s home was easy as the house was still under construction. There were no front and back doors and no locks on his bedroom door.
At her home yesterday, the suspect’s wife was still in disbelief and their children gathered along the stairway, puzzled as to why their father was gone. With her husband of 12 years gone, she was left to care for the children alone with no running water, electricity and other basic amenities.
“When he came home, he woke me up and told me to wake up the children. I got up and wake them and he talked to them and told them that this was the last time they would be seeing him because the police will come for him just now. I asked him what he did and he told me he killed Gobin (Kanhai).
“I was not afraid because I did not know what to believe. I did not really think he did that. It was only when he called the police and told them what he did, I realised it was true,” the woman said.
Kanhai’s nephew Narad Kanhai said before the suspect surrendered, he came to his home and confessed to the murder. He said it appeared that the suspect was drunk and only believed him when he saw him surrender to the police.
Another nephew Deonarine Harrynarine said one of his cousins also saw the suspect walk into Kanhai’s home, heard screaming and saw the suspect leave. He called his father who went across to the house and found Kanhai already dead at his bedside. Harrynarine said his uncle only recently began collecting a government pension and used to plant chadon beni to make a living. He said although Kanhai often drank and cursed loudly when he got drunk, he never troubled anyone.
Relatives said the suspect, who previously lived at Laventille and worked at a funeral home, spent most of Saturday drinking and liming with friends. They said he was at a cricket game where he had a few beers and returned home for a “sue-sue hand,” he had collected so that he could lime some more. They said he even got into an argument at the bar, but could not say what it was about.