Choon’s relatives: 'Let us mourn in peace'

The family of four who were found dead in a car in Toco on Friday will be cremated together today, after a funeral in Cunupia.

Newsday spoke briefly yesterday to relatives who said the service will be held at their home, and the final rites for the small family will be read in accordance with Hindu practices. They said they do not want any media presence or any further publication on the deaths that have befallen their family, but simply wish to mourn their loss.

“We are hearing too much wrong information from the media and we have a lot that we are going through right now. This is a really hard time for us. We just want to mourn in peace,” said one relative of the slain family.

On Friday last, passers-by walking along Hamburg Trace, Toco, noticed a white Nissan AD wagon parked at the side of the road.

The concerned residents peered inside to find the family of four – Barry Choon, 35, his wife Shalini Sookdeo-Choon, 29, and their two children, seven-year-old Sarah and baby Jason – all dead in the car.

Autopsies showed Shalini's and Sarah's throats had been slit. and baby Jason died of suffocation. But there has not been yet any determination of how Barry died. Newsday was told samples were taken for analysis, and investigators will have a better understanding after the results of that analysis are given in three weeks.

One relative also knocked an earlier report in another newspaper which claimed Shalini was pregnant with a third child.

“That is not true. She was not pregnant,” the relative said.