Family wiped outBy RALPH BANWARIE Monday, November 26 2007
A 47-year-old man poisoned his ten-year-old son on Friday night before taking his own life. It is alleged that the father mixed Lanate in soft drink and gave his son to drink before he himself drank the deadly mix.
Four years ago, the boy’s mother was stabbed to death by a man, who is before the court charged with the murder.
The police identified the bodies as that of Prakash Harridath and his son Lorenzo Harridath, a student of the Sangre Grande Hindu School.
The gruesome discovery was made yesterday by Harridath’s sister, Jenny Badal.
The decomposed bodies of father and son were discovered lying side by side in a bed at a wooden, dilapidated house at Quash Trace, Foster Road, Sangre Grande, at about 11 am yesterday.
The murder/suicide rocked the normally quiet agricultural community where the killer, a mechanic, resided.
Reports revealed that Lorenzo was staying at the home of a female relative but had complained of being unhappy and unloved.
He contacted his sister Narissa Sookhoo, who took him to her home, but she soon encountered problems over her decision to take care of her brother.
With no where to go, Lorenzo contacted his father on Friday and told him that he wanted to live with him.
According to reports, Harridath picked up his son outside the Sangre Grande Hindu School at about 3.30 pm on Friday, took him to Sangre Grande, gave him money to purchase chicken and chips and a soft drink.
They returned to Quash Trace, Sangre Grande late Friday night where Harridath mixed the deadly cocktail and fed it to his son.
Yesterday, Harridath’s neighbours said they were alerted to a foul stench emanating from the house but they were not suspicious.
It was only after the discovery was made by Jenny Badal that neighbours went to the house to see what was happening.
Harridath was a mechanic and an outpatient of the St Ann’s Hospital.
Relatives believe that he took the decision to end the life of his son and then commit suicide because he felt his son was not being properly taken care of.
“He did not want to continue hearing rumours that his son was being ill treated and unloved,” said Narissa Sookhoo, Lorenzo’s sister. She said that on October 24, 2003, Georgiana Sookhoo, her mother, was at her Mc Shine Street, Sangre Grande home when she was attacked by a 41-year-old man known to her.
The man pulled out Sookhoo from her home and dealt her several chop wounds.
She died hours later at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
“I cannot believe that one tragedy after another has followed this family,” said a tearful Sookhoo yesterday.
She believes that her brother may still be alive if he had stayed at her home.
The schoolboy was described as a quiet, reserved person who appeared to be traumatised over the death of his mother.
The bodies were viewed yesterday by District Medical Officer Dr Roxanne Tantaco, who confirmed that the boy was poisoned since Friday.
Police investigators seized a bottle containing the remnants of the poisonous Lanate weedicide. Officers of the Homicide Bureau are investigating.
