Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:10 AM
Sep 01, 2013 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery
By Michael Jordan
George Ting-A-Kee comes from a strong Christian background, so he surely must wonder why violence has visited his God-fearing clan for close to two decades; and why this violence came to his very doorstep two years ago.
The name Ting-A-Kee sticks in the memories of veterans like me, who still wonder exactly what happened in that colonial-style family house in Cummings Street, some 18 years ago.
Here’s the version that we gleaned from residents and the police.
On the last day of August in 1995, at around 2:50 a.m., residents of Cummings Street, Alberttown heard two muffled explosions. Some of them thought that someone was throwing cans about. But then they heard shouts of “thief, thief.”
The commotion came from the home of Ralph Ting-A-Kee, a private tutor of English, Mathematics and Physics, who lived on the premises with his reputed wife, his 14-year-old daughter, Lalita, and a stepson.
Suspecting that the household was being preyed upon by robbers, some of the neighbours rushed over to the residence. There they found 14-year-old Lalita lying motionless on the floor of the bottom flat of the house. She had apparently been shot.
The neighbours then entered the top flat. The body of 59-year-old Ralph Ting-A-Kee was in his bedroom. He had been shot once in the head.
Policemen who arrived at the scene some 30 minutes later, believed that Lalita was still alive, and rushed her to the Georgetown Hospital. However, doctors declared her dead, and it was later discovered that she had been strangled.
Investigators at the scene were told that the killers had broken into the house. They were also told that Ting-A-Kee’s reputed wife had fainted after the first shot was fired. She was admitted to a private hospital in an apparent state of shock.
But even after a careful check of the property, the detectives could find no sign of forced entry.
By now, they were certain that bandits had not slain the tutor and his daughter, and the theory they came up with was a disturbing one.
Mr. Ting-A-Kee, a retired surveyor, was the holder of a licenced firearm. But that firearm was missing. Police were certain that someone had killed Ting-A-Kee with his own firearm. The detectives also recovered a bullet in the yard.
According to reports, Mr. Ting-A-Kee had made his daughter the sole beneficiary of a recently drawn-up will. Detectives received reports that some persons close to the tutor were incensed by this development. The investigators suspected that these same individuals had plotted his murder.
According to reports, a post mortem by Forensic Pathologist Dr. Leslie Mootoo indicated that the teen had had sex shortly before her death. Jealousy, the investigators suspected, might also have been a motive.
Almost a week after the double-murder, police arrested Ralph Ting-A-Kee’s reputed wife and her teenage stepson.
It was alleged that the two had slept at the house at the time of the murder. Police alleged that after the murder, the tutor’s reputed wife had entered a private hospital, but had then left the institution around the same time that hospital officials had indicated that she was well enough to be questioned. According to the investigators, the woman had checked into a hotel and had refused to speak to the police.
She had then turned up at a police station accompanied by an attorney and was taken into custody.
The two were released, but were subsequently rearrested and charged with the murders of Ralph and Lalita Ting-A-Kee. But the case collapsed during the Preliminary Inquiry.
I remember the female accused smiling at me and saying “no comment” before leaving the court.
One of the investigators later told me that they had come close to cracking the case when a woman who was preparing to spill the beans suddenly stopped cooperating with them.
Mr. George Ting-A-Kee, who is a cousin of the victims, identified the persons that he believed killed Ralph and Lalita Ting-A-Kee. He suggested that one of them was a young man who was under the influence of a woman.
He disclosed that a few years later, another bizarre incident occurred at the same Alberttown property. This time, the victim was one of his uncles.
According to reports, Cuthbert Ting-A-Kee, a former chief sanitary inspector, was taking his garbage across the road at around 6:00 am when he was struck down and killed by a motorcyclist.
The sole eyewitness, who was standing several yards away from the scene, could only tell police that the motorcyclist was riding “a big bike.”
But police believed that Cuthbert Ting-A-Kee’s death was no mere hit-and-run accident.
According to George Ting-A-Kee, the police suspected that one of the dead man’s sons had arranged for him to be killed to gain control of his father’s assets.
“They said he was the only one who had a motive to kill his father, and then they learned that he (the victim) had a whole lot of kids overseas.” The case was subsequently dismissed.
Some 16 years after the unsolved murders of Ralph and Lalita Ting-A Kee, tragedy came to George Ting-A-Kee under equally mysterious circumstances. This time the victim was his son.
On Friday, September 2, 2011, Yiu Ting-A-Kee, a 21-year-old University of Guyana student, was sitting in his car near the Texaco Gas Station in Bel Air with a female friend when he was fatally shot.
It is alleged that one of the men shot the student in the chest and leg and fled with his accomplice in Ting-A-Kee’s car after relieving the victim of his valuables.The car was recovered in Lamaha Park later that evening while police recovered six .38 rounds at the murder scene.
But George Ting-A-Kee is certain that his son’s killers had a motive other than robbery. According to him, his son never wore gold jewellery while going out. He added that there was money in his son’s wallet when police recovered it in his car. Mr. Ting-A-Kee also pointed to the fact that the ‘robbers’ had not stripped his son’s vehicle.
He added that contrary to some reports, his son and the young woman he was with were sitting in the passenger side of the car, and not on the seawall.
“I heard her (the young woman) say that they (the bandits) jumped over the wall and demanded money and cell phones, (but) it doesn’t appear as if her cell phone was stolen,” he told me.
“She was not touched; she was not slapped. She said that he pushed her behind him to protect her. There are too many things that don’t mesh.”
Mr. Ting-A-Kee says that he is also puzzled that there was just a small spot of blood at the murder scene, even though his son was shot in the chest and left leg.
The 21-year-old woman was taken into custody briefly, but was subsequently released.
She has repeatedly declined to speak about the matter.
One relative speculated that the killers might have been ‘amateurs’ who panicked and shot Ting-A-Kee while attempting to rob him.
George Ting-A Kee hopes that this does not become yet another ‘cold case’. Does he find it strange that his family is being dogged by violence?
“We are not a family that has been violent in any way,” he said.
“We can never think that this thing is following us. We are Christians, and we must always believe that the Lord knows best. In this time when there is so much talk about the end of the world…if this is so, He will be seeking those who are good, righteous and pure-hearted to join His band of angels. You have to believe that He knows, and He is the judge.”
If you have any information about these or any other unusual cases, please contact us by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office. Our numbers are 22-58465, 22-58458 and 22-58452. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: [email protected]
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