For the second time in as many days there has been a brutal attack on a senior citizen in the Sangre Grande area.
This time the victim, a 61-year-old nurse who had only recently come out of retirement, was pronounced dead at hospital after she was found hog tied with a towel stuffed in her mouth at her Ojoe Road home yesterday morning.
Police responding to a report of robbery found Savitri Juteram unconscious and her house ransacked at around 12.15 am. However, the only item they could confirm as missing was a flat screen television.
The incident came just hours after Lucy Bano, 90, was brutally attacked with a hammer and a piece of wood at her home at Palmiste Drive, Coalmine, Sangre Grande. Bano is hospitalised in serious condition with fractures to her arms and legs and serious injuries to her face. A relative of the elderly woman has been detained in connection with that incident.
At the scene of the latest attack, neighbours described Juteram, who lived alone, as kind and respectful. They told the T&T Guardian she had recently resumed work because she wanted something to do. A friend of the deceased, who did not want to be identified, said Juteram had wanted to sell her home and move out but she advised the retired nurse to go back to work to keep active.
“I tell her is best she go back out because if she stay home she might just get sick. She said she was fed up of Sangre Grande (Hospital) and the pace so she went Caura hospital to work” the friend said, adding that Juteram moved into the area three years ago and rebuilt her home.
A grandmother and mother of three sons, Juteram had left an abusive relationship and was rebuilding her life in Sangre Grande, the friend said. She was fondly known as Tants and Ms Savy by neighbours. One of them said: “I will miss seeing her almost everyday. It really sad, I didn’t sleep since last night. I heard gunshots but I thought it was scratch bombs.”
Police said Juteram had injuries to her face but gave no further details. Juteram’s closest neighbour said: “Whoever is responsible for this I hope that they get swift justice and get what is due to them. That woman sacrifice and save and rebuild that house. When she bought it, it was a wooden house and she fix it up and look where she come and meet she death.”
Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh, who was approached for comment during the Down’s Syndrome Family Network Body Walk at Nelson Mandela Park yesterday, expressed his condolences to Juteram’s family. He said her murder was another blow to the nursing community, following the rape and assault of a nurse at the St James Medical Health Facility on Wednesday.
Deyalsingh said he received a report on that incident from the CEO of the health facility and the ministry will be reviewing the hiring of security firms at hospitals throughout the country. According to police reports, a 20-year-old security guard attached to SWAT was arrested at the health facility shortly after he raped and beat the 67-year-old nurse. The suspect will appear in court today on charges of rape and assault.
Insp Henry Dann and WPCs Kerr and Phillip are continuing investigations.