Mother of 2 murdered, husband chopped – Penal woman loses 2nd daughter in 8 months

STILL grieving for her 33-year-old daughter who died in January, a woman from Penal was thrown in further grief over the weekend when her daughter was murdered in the Barrackpore district.

"It ain't make eight months as yet, and I lost another child. Reshma was here on Wednesday. She told me she loved me. She never did anyone anything. I lost two children in less than eight months," Kelowtie Ramnarine said.

"She was (mentally) unstable and grew up poor. I tried to get help for her. She had all her senses. She was living in a ply house that I helped build. I encouraged her to stay with me, but she loved Ravi. She always said her home was her home."

Ramnarine, 66, of Suchit Trace in Penal, is the mother of Reshma Peters, 45, whose body was found on August 25 around 10 am at the roadside at Mohess Road with injuries to the head, hip, and right leg.

Peters, who was unemployed, lived at Wilson Road in Barrackpore with her common-law husband, Ravi Samlal, 36.

The night before, around 9.30 pm on August 24, the couple was walking along Mohess Road Extension near Hertiage Production GN4 Tank, and a car pulled up alongside them.

A man got out and chopped Samlal, leaving him unconscious. However, he survived the ordeal and was treated and discharged from the San Fernando General Hospital.

Trying to hold back tears on August 26, Peters' mother recalled on January 6, another daughter, Anissa "Annie" Ramnarine, died after an abscess raptured in her abdomen area.

The funeral took place on January 12, Peters' 45th birthday.

When Ramnarine got the news of Peters' murder, she could not bear to go to see the body.

The grandmother of eight said Peters frequently walked the road, and many villagers knew her.

Ramnarine now has two surviving children.

Newsday also spoke to the survivor, who recalled that they were attacked while on their way home, having bought food and a beer.

He said it happened in a lonely area with no working streetlight.

"The person did not say anything. We never expected something like this to happen. The place was dark, so I could not see properly. When I woke up after he chopped me, I did not know where Reshma was or what happened to her. I ran up the road, thinking that they might pass back to chop me again if they knew I was still alive," Samal said.

"They came to kill us. But we did not do anybody anything. Reshma was a nice person."

His sister Esther Samlal said the same thing about Peters.

She added, "It is hurting me. My heart feels as if it is shattered inside of me. I am grieving right now. There is too much crime in this country. She was a nice person. Where they were attacked, the streetlights do not work."

Sgt Elvin and other police from the Homicide Bureau of Investigation, Region Three, and officers from the Southern and South Western Division responded and gathered evidence.

An autopsy is expected to be done in the week at the Forensic Science Centre in St James.

The police do not have a motive.

Cpl Latchman is leading the investigation.