Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 01, 2013 News
– Surveillance tape disappears, entire upstairs doused with diesel
By Romila Boodram
In what appears to be a robbery/murder, police and firefighters yesterday stumbled upon the body of a businesswoman, minutes after they went to investigate a fire that had broken out in her storage bond at Lot 2430 Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara.
The victim who was identified as Pavita Singh, 48, also known as Sirmattie Ramnaress, was found lying face down in her garage around 08:30 hours.
The garage is separated from her house by a glass door. Singh’s body bore two stab wounds – one to the neck and another to the hip.
Bloodstains on the floor indicated that the mother of one was attacked somewhere in her living room and was then dragged by her feet to the garage.
From all indications, the woman put up a fierce fight with her attacker(s).
“The house was ransacked and it would appear as if whoever did this, attempted to set the house on fire. The whole place had what appears to be diesel,” a police source told this newspaper.
The source suggested that the perpetrators were desperate to destroy all evidence of their work, since the surveillance footage which would have been recorded when Singh’s attacker entered and exited the building, disappeared. Her motor car, which was missing, was later found abandoned on the Liliendaal Public Road, ECD, a few hours after the gruesome discovery.
Nothing was stolen from the car, but detectives have indicated that they were able to lift several fingerprints from the vehicle.
Police in a statement said that the body of Sirmattie Ramnaress was found in her home at Diamond with injuries to her head and left hip.
The release further stated that the woman’s house was ransacked and drenched with flammable liquid and a storage bond at the rear of the building was destroyed by fire.
Singh lived alone in the house and her nearest neighbour occupies a small shack at the back portion of the lot next door.
Investigators are convinced that the perpetrators had managed to disarm the alarm system of the property and gained entry by prizing open a door at the back.
“The back door had what appeared to be a breach,” the source said.
Yesterday, as fire fighters desperately tried to put out the fire and police were busy searching for evidence, scores of onlookers gathered at the scene.
Singh’s relatives were tight-lipped about the shocking development, but they were heard crying and saying “is only Monday she celebrate her 48th birthday.”
Her partner for over the past five years, Police Sergeant Collin Bailey who is attached to the Vigilance Police Station on the East Coast Demerara, arrived hours after the discovery was made and assisted with investigations.
He is convinced that Singh was attacked after 11:30 pm on Friday.
According to Bailey, one of Singh’s business associates informed him that he had texted her at 11:30pm Friday and she responded by saying that she had fallen asleep in the chair.
“That would have been the last time we know that she was alive,” Bailey told family members.
Bailey, who was about to perform escort duties for the visiting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Moros when he was informed about Singh’s death, told investigators that he last visited the Diamond house on Monday.
A close friend of the dead woman disclosed that she had dropped her home at about 9pm on Friday.
Police have their work cut out, since neighbours spoke of seeing Singh sweeping her yard early yesterday morning, but no one mentioned hearing any noises from within the house.
“It has to be someone she knows, because she has a code for the gate and only who knows it can enter and no one can climb that fence, and the house is heavily grilled,” one neighbour remarked.
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