Father and daughter charged with murder, 4 years after woman's 'suicide'

Four years after relatives told police Esther Williams’ committed suicide, her common law husband and daughter were charged with the victim’s murder.

The police in a release said Seewak Jagroo, a 58-year-old labourer of Little Caura Road, Cumuto, and his daughter Shastri Jagroo, 25, of McBean, Couva, were charged on Tuesday following advice from Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard.

The two were scheduled to appear Wednesday at the Sangre Grande Magistrates' Court for the offence which occurred in 2014.

Both father and daughter reported to the Cumuto Police Station on the day of the incident the 54-year-old housewife had committed suicide after they allegedly discovered her body hanging at their home. Police say investigations and post-mortem results revealed the victim died of ligature strangulation and the body also bore multiple blunt traumatic injuries which were inconsistent with the suicide claim.

The accused were arrested by officers of the Cumuto Police Station at their respective homes on Wednesday August 29. Investigations were supervised by Head of the Cold Case Unit ASP (Ag) Sean Dhillpaul and Sgt Sean Williams of the Cumuto Police Station,while Cpl. Shawn Gordon, also of Cumuto Police Station, laid the charges.

This is the eleventh murder case solved by the Cold Case Unit since it was established in 2017, the police said.