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Oct 21, 2021 News
Kaieteur News – A man popularly known in the Mahdia, Region Eight community as “Umbrella Dread” was on Monday remanded for allegedly killing his common-law-wife, Denise Vieira, 47, on Wednesday last.
The defendant, whose correct name is Marvin Verbeke, 33, appeared virtually before Magistrate Sunil Scarce at the Mahdia Magistrate’s court. He was not required to plead to the indictable charge of murder and is expected to make his next court appearance on January 12, 2022.
According to reports, Verbeke had reportedly given detectives a confession that he had unintentionally choked Vieira to death. Verbeke and Vieira had shared a common-law relationship for eight years but had separated some six-months ago. The dead woman’s relative had related the couple’s relationship turned sour about a year ago. Vieira and Verbeke would have frequent arguments over domestic issues and sometimes they would end up fighting.
Vieira had decided to move out from the wooden house they shared and moved into a concrete structure she had built in the same yard and had been living and conducting her business there for six months now.
Vieira’s neighbours had related, however, that despite living apart, Verberke would still go over to her place and verbally abuse her every day. On Wednesday, the day she was killed, those neighbours had recalled overhearing a verbal confrontation between the two just moments before her remains were found lying on the kitchen floor of her grocery shop and home. The woman’s body was found with blood oozing from the nose and mouth around 13:45hrs that day.
Neighbours had narrated to police that they had heard, Vieira telling the accused, “Get out of my (expletive) place, leff me alone.” Verbeke had initially denied that he had anything to do with Vieira’s death but later decided to admit that he had killed her.
During his confession, he had admitted to the cops that indeed he had gone over to Vieira’s place but his intention was not to kill her. He claimed that he had just wanted to talk to her. Verbeke claimed that when he entered the kitchen, Vieira was cooking and instead of alerting her, he placed his arms around her neck from behind with the intention of pulling her aside for a chat.
Vieira, he said, resisted and they ended up in a scuffle and he had tightened his grip around her neck to keep her under control but she kept on fighting. According to the man, they had fallen to the floor where Vieira allegedly hit her head.
Verbeke claimed that he had stopped fighting and he decided to release her from his grip not knowing that she was already dead. After noticing that she was unresponsive, Verbeke claimed that he tried to revive her but his attempts were futile.
Verbeke confessed that after realising that Vieira was probably dead, he decided to make some checks around her house before heading to a location nearby where he was reportedly seen hanging with friends.
Family members and investigators, however, have since related that they believe that Verbeke did not only choke the woman to death but might have beaten her in the process with a heavy object. An autopsy conducted on her remains had showed that in addition to being killed by manual strangulation, the woman suffered blunt trauma to the head. Crime scene experts had also reported that there were multiple marks of violence on her body.
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