The community of Malabar was struggling last evening to come to terms with the brutal murder of a 56-year-old woman and a teenager.
Police believe the killing of Rose Mohammed, 56, and her 13-year-old neighbour Videsh Subar may have been linked to an old robbery in which the men were jailed and recently from released prison.
After slitting the throats of Mohammed and Subar at Mohammed’s Ajim Baskh Street, Malabar home, the killers stole the woman’s Toyota Voxy she used to transport school children and a television. The car, minus the TV, was found in Wallerfield about two hours after their bodies were found.
According to police, the killers siphoned gas out of the vehicle, doused the driver’s seat and set it ablaze. However, the fire did not last long and only the driver’s seat and parts of the steering wheel and driver’s door were burnt.
Police, however, do not believe robbery was the motive behind the killings, since the attack was too gruesome and the fact that apart from the vehicle nothing of substantial worth was taken from the house.
Police said Mohammed was robbed eight years ago and the men responsible were held, jailed and reportedly released recently.
Speaking with the media outside a neighbour’s home yesterday, Mohammed’s husband Shariff confirmed the couple’s home was broken into some years ago, but added that “nothing came out of it”. He said he came home for lunch yesterday, as he was accustomed doing and found the front door open. The car was not in the driveway so he assumed his wife stepped out. However, as he stepped inside he saw Subar, then went to his bedroom found his wife’s body.
Residents told the T&T Guardian that after Mohammed came home he called out to them and they raced in to find the bodies and called police. The two victims were bound with their hands tied behind their backs, their fee tied and their mouths were covered with tape.
One man said: “The man like he didn’t know what to do, he come home and then run outside bawling. When we went we see the lil boy on the ground with his head in blood. I never see blood get thick so before. When we reach in the bedroom we see the woman. She dress was pull up and we cover she up. The knife was on the bed still, it look like a kitchen knife.”
The teen’s grandfather, Sudesh Kalloo, wailed and called on the killers or anyone to end his life, saying he had nothing to live for any more.
The dead end street was nearly impassable, with neighbours coming out of their homes, all crying and angry. Many questioned why the killers had to end the duo’s lives.
Another resident, whose wife works with Subar’s mother Veena, said the Sagicor employee was planning on staying home with her son but opted instead to leave him in the care of Mohammed, who had been looking after him since he was a baby, as well as other children in the community.
Screams silence street
On her arrival home, nearly two hours after the discovery, Subar’s screams silenced the street. The pain in her high-pitched voice as she called out to her dead son brought tears fro others. She told relatives there that Subar, who recently sat the Secondary Entrance Examination and wanted to attend Trinity College, was only sleeping and begged them to go wake him up.
“Why they do meh Videsh that? Why? Vidie, mummy home. I was going to stay home with him, I would have given them my whole house and everything in it for my son, why they do that? Why?” Subar screamed as she was being consoled.
Visiting the scene was divisional commander Snr Supt Mc Donald Jacob, who said the killing was one of the worst kinds, as the killers defiled the sanctity of a person’s home to carry out “such a heinous act.” He added that the killing not only affected the family but the community and country. Jacob assured that his officers will be doing all they could to apprehend the culprits in the double murder.
The double murder and those of two others between Tuesday night and yesterday took the toll to 249 for the year compared to 227 for the previous year.
