Woman, baby murdered by relative after years of abuse, months of threats

YEARS of abuse ended in tragedy for a mother and her 14-month-old daughter when a male relative went berserk on October 8, chopping them to death.

Reports say the man also went in search of Tara Ramsaroop’s son, who was at school, burnt the car of her friend at Barrackpore and then tried to take his own life.

Police responding to the cold-blooded attack held the suspect while he was walking into Platinite Trace with a piece of rope in his hand.

His distraught mother told Newsday she believed he was intent on self-harm.

The tragedy unfolded on Tuesday morning, as Ramsaroop, the mother of four, went to Clarke Rochard Government Primary school to drop off her eight-year-old son.

She was confronted by the suspect, who lured her to his home at Location Road, off Rochard Road, Barrackpore.

No one knew what happened inside the walls of the makeshift shack where he lived, but shortly before 11, he walked to the home of nearby relatives and told them he had done something bad. He took a piece of rope, jumped into his vehicle and drove off.

It was then relatives on both sides made the gruesome find of the bodies of Ramsaroop and her youngest daughter, Jada Mootilal, lying on a bed stained by their own blood. Their throats had been slit.

A call was made to Ramsaroop’s son's school, which was locked down, as the suspect had threatened to also kill the boy. As police processed the scene, the child remained in school all day, unaware that his mother and sister had died.

An emotional Jassodra Rajaram, Ramsaroop's sister, said she and her niece would have been alive if the police had intervened, as the suspect had threatened to end their lives numerous times before.

She said multiple reports had been made to Barrackpore police during the course of a six-year abusive relationship, but there was no intervention. She said there were four restraining orders against the suspect, but they were never served.

“I always told my sister, the day he kills you and your children, then you would see the police. So said, so done,” she cried, pointing to the heavy police presence behind the cordoned-off area leading to the scene of the murder.

Rajaram said her sister was previously married and had two teenage children from that union. The two older children live with their paternal grandparents.

Rajaram said about ten years ago, Ramsaroop entered into a relationship with another man, but about four years into that relationship, it became abusive.

“He would beat her badly. I remember about seven months ago, she called me and when I went to her place to pick her up he had his hands wrapped around her hair and he was dragging her down the hill to the house.”

She said she intervened, but he turned his attention to her car, kicked it and jumped in, “as though he wanted to mash it up.”

She said Ramsaroop did all that was right to ensure self-preservation and the well-being of her two younger children, who lived with her.

She left the abusive relationship, built her own house and moved out with her children.

“But he kept torturing her, hounding her and beating her with blades. He would go to her house, jump over her fence and lie down in her bed waiting for her when she came home from working in my burger cart.”

She said he vowed to kill her and her two children if she did not return to him.

“Just last week he broke into her house and stole over $4,000 she was saving. A report was again made, but police did nothing.

"There are numerous reports against him. Reports upon reports, She took out four protection orders against him: they never served him.”

She said Ramsaroop stayed away from the man, but met him last Saturday.

Rajaram said she did not know what happened that would have led Ramsaroop to go to the suspect's home on October 8.

The suspect’s mother said she tried to get her son to change his abusive ways, but he never listened.

Police are continuing investigations.