Guapo 'fire victims' actually stabbed to death

The autopsy results on three people from Point Fortin who were initially believed to have died during a fire show they were actually stabbed to death. On Friday, after 8 am, police and fire officers were alerted to a burning house at Petrotrin Quarters in Guapo.

When they arrived and extinguished the flames, they found the bodies of 69-year-old Ceslyn "Linda" Farrell, her son Patrick Farrell, 48, and friend Seycelles Hannah, 41, burnt beyond recognition.

Investigators at the scene had told Newsday they believed the victims were murdered, then the murderer set the house on fire to conceal the evidence. Police had later found a bloodstained cutlass inside the house. This was confirmed by the autopsy, as all three victims had multiple stab wounds to the chest and were dead before the fire was started.

Speaking with Newsday on Thursday morning, a relative of the Farrells who wished to remain anonymous said the victims did not deserve it. “With the information being released, it makes you think about the pain that they endured in their last hour.

“There’s no excuse for my grandmother and uncle dying such painful deaths, especially when you know their only involvement in this was taking in someone that claimed to have nowhere else to go.”

Hannah had been living with the Farrells for about three months because of domestic troubles. She previously lived at Point Fortin and was the mother of two.

Newsday was told her partner had dropped off her clothes at the Apostolic Worship Centre in Point Fortin, saying, “Since she like church more than me, take her.” Police detained the man, a 33-year-old taxi driver, but he was later released.

Family members of the Farrells told Newsday they were told DNA tests are needed to verify the identities of the victims because they were so badly burned. The DNA unit at the Forensic Sciences Centre, St James is currently out of service, and there is a backlog.