Relatives of deceased Princes Town couple: They were private people

Relatives of a Princes Town couple that appear to have died by suicide on Saturday say they are still in the dark when it comes to the full extent of the couple's alleged financial trouble.

Last Saturday, Steve Jugmohan, 40 and his common law wife Sharline Ramkissoon, 39, of La Pailla Road in Princess Town was discovered dead by their nine-year-old daughter around 11.50 am.

The couple had been in a relationship for approximately ten years and lived downstairs the family home.

Speaking with Newsday at the Forensic Science Centre in St James on Monday, Jugmohan’s older sister Sharon, trying to contain her emotions, said around 11.50 am on Saturday, her niece came upstairs and told her that her parents had hanged themselves, having made the discovery.

“She come with these two little bags on her back, shouting auntie, auntie. I say what happen, she say look mummy and daddy hang themselves.”

She said as shocked as she was, she immediately went downstairs to see what was happening.

“The mom was lying on the ground on a pillow and then when I open the door, I saw my brother hanging from the ceiling in the bathroom. I run outside, because I get so stupid bawling mommy, mommy it really is true.”

She said she called the police, while also asking the officer to call the Emergency Health Services (EHS) ambulance. She also contacted Sharline’s mother.

“A little while, Sharline’s mother and sister came. They wanted to see so I asked the police just for them to see her, but not my brother, I didn’t want anybody to see my brother in that condition.”

She said she was also told of a video made by the couple prior to the incident, however, she had not seen it by the time Newsday spoke with her on Monday.

“It is on my brother’s phone. When it happened, the daughter gave me the phone but with all the commotion, she never said it had videos and stuff. It’s when she showed her grandmother, Sharline’s mom, then we got to realise it had two videos and well the officers had already taken the phone.

"I had asked if I could see it, so they just showed me a glimpse of one of the videos and in the video that I saw, the little pieces, my brother was on the side and she talking and I was seeing the little girl to the back. She made the video stating that they had financial problems and they asked for help and they didn’t get the assistance and they had to resort to this.”

She said the incident had left the family traumatised as the couple never confided in anyone about their problems. She said she suspected something was wrong when they sold two vehicles.

“I started to question my brother when he started to sell the vehicles. He sold two of the vehicles and I wanted to know why because those were vehicles that my mom and dad had buy for us. I started to quarrel asking why and that is when I realised that they had a problem.”

She added: “I mean, they had the problem but what kind of money they could have been owing so that they had to resort to this. I trying to put sense into this whole thing right now because they were private people.”

She said her brother drove a green-band maxi, while Sharline worked as a Lotto-centre operator.

“He had stopped working the maxi for this whole covid19 time. She would work alone and he would be down there helping her. The children had online classes, sometimes they stayed with the grandmother down the road, sometimes they stayed with me but most of the times the boy stayed with me and the girl stays with the grandmom.”

She added: “Since Thursday, they left the little boy with me. When he went downstairs they told him no, that they were sick so they gave him clothes and they sent him back up. So they were probably planning and they didn’t want him to see anything.”

She said the five-year-old boy was born with a hole in his heart.

She said she did not want the children to be separated.

“As at the moment, it is where the children are comfortable, that is where we want them to be. His comfort zone is with me, her comfort zone is with her grandmother. Right now it’s where the children are comfortable, but both of them would be taken care of. ”

The couple also had children from previous relationships, as Jugmohan was also the father of a 16-year-old girl while Ramkissoon is the mother of two boys, who live abroad.

She said Ag Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob has since visited and have promised to arrange counselling after the funeral.

A post-mortem is expected to be performed on the bodies prior to any funeral arrangements.