Tobago hammer-murder suspect dies

KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY

A week after he was captured, after being on the run for a week, 34-year-old Jason Cain is dead.

Cain was held on February 8 and was said to be assisting police investigating the murder of 24-year-old pre-school teacher K’la Marie Solomon-Cain.

Police say Cain died around 11.30 pm on Wednesday at the Scarborough General Hospital, where he had been kept under police guard since being captured.

Investigators believe he may have drunk poison before he was held, as traces of a poisonous substance were suspected to be in his blood, which police said an autopsy will confirm.

Speaking at a briefing at the Scarborough Police Station on February 9, Tobago Divisional Commander, Snr Supt Joanne Archie confirmed that around 10.10 am on February 8, police from the Old Grange Homicide Tobago Divisional Task Force, headed by Insp Parsanlal, acting on information received, went about two miles into a forested area off Huntley Trace, off the Arnos Vale Road. They found Cain in a galvanise shed. He was taken to the Scarborough General Hospital in Signal Hill, and was being treated.

Cain, who was originally from Trinidad, was wanted in connection with the murder of his wife, Solomon-Cain, who was attacked with a hammer on February 2 around 8.20 am. The attack happened at the home of a fellow schoolteacher in Lambeau Village, next to the Dorothy Moses Private Nursery School, in full view of Solomon-Cain’s two children, five and seven.

Newsday understands police found a weapon believed to be the one used on Solomon-Cain sometime after. However, police sources declined to reveal the type of weapon or where it was found, but said they strongly believe it was the murder weapon. It has since been sent for forensic testing. An autopsy on Solomon-Cain by Dr Eslyn McDonald-Burris at the Scarborough General Hospital mortuary on February 5 showed she died of craniocerebral injuries due to multiple blunt force trauma to the head. Police confirmed that the children are in the care of close relatives.