Princes Town mother killed in front of son, 16

WHAT was supposed to be an evening of fun at a car show with her children ended in tragedy for a Princes Town woman when she was chopped to death by a close male relative on October 12 in an attack investigators believe stemmed from a domestic incident.

Laura Sankar, 34, of Post Office Trace, New Grant, Princes Town, was killed in front of her 16-year-old son.

Her son told police that before he took a shower around 5.34 pm, his mother had an argument with the suspect.

The teen said while he was getting dressed in his bedroom, he heard his mother screaming and discovered the suspect chopping her in the bathroom.

The boy tried to stop the man with a stick before running out of the house with his seven-year-old brother and two younger teenage cousins to a neighbour's home for help.

Police were contacted and when they responded around 6.30 pm, the 16-year-old took them to the suspect, who was sitting on the lower portion of the house.

Police said the suspect told them: “I know why I killed she, look the cutlass here.”

He was taken into custody and the cutlass was seized.

Sitting at the home on October 13 where her sister was brutally murdered, Sherryann Sankar was surrounded by relatives as they tried to come to terms with the events that unfolded just hours before.

She said she received word about the incident shortly after it occurred. In disbelief, she called her sister's phone and the suspect answered.

"I say: 'Where Laura?' and he say that how she dead (and) that's it there, how he fed up."

Commenting on his words to her, Sherryann said: "If you stressed out, kill yourself. It's you what stressed out and fed up. Not my sister."

She said Sankar had known the male relative for around 18 years and it was not the first time he had attacked her.

She said over the years, the suspect had a colourful history with the family, having even attacked some other relatives. She was unsure if her sister had ever made any reports to police about the suspect.

Despite this, she said she warned Sankar several times about the man.

"But at the end of the day, it's her choice to make."

Not wanting to see other women killed at the hands of a man, Sherryann issued some advice.

"We see men on a rampage because they see woman as a weaker vessel. Always. And instead of men to care for women and love a woman, they seem to be advantageous because they have this egotistic, masculine...superior behaviour.

"I think when you see red flags start to come up, that is a sign to move on before it result to losing your life."

With Sankar's children now being left alone, she said she would take care of them, with the help of other family members.

At the time of the interview, she said the children were at the police station receiving counselling.

"I don't think the little one understands what really happened. He know but I don't think (he) really grasp what happened. The big one, he know. I don't know how he holding up this morning, though."

She described her sister as a "gem.''

She said Sankar used to make school trips but recently had her eyes set on becoming a nurse.

"She was doing some nursing course and she get through with that. She passing it. She come first in it.

"She had plans of going further into doing nursing.

"Even if she could have gone away after and she fight up and she make it at the end of the day. She never sit down and depend on nobody. She always tried for better. She always tried for excellence."

In the last week, six women have been attacked. Four have died of their injuries. In the first incident, a 64-year-old South Oropouche woman was chopped several times outside her Berridge Trace home on October 7 by two assailants who jumped out of a vehicle belonging to a man she knew. She was warded in stable condition at hospital.

On October 8, Tara "Geeta" Ramsaroop, 34, and her 14-month-old daughter Shermaya "Jada" Motilal were chopped and killed. Her estranged common-law husband, Rishi Motilal was charged for their killings and appeared before Master Shabiki Cazabon in the South Criminal Court on October 11. He was denied bail and remanded in custody to reappear on January 10, 2025.

On October 10 Sunita Mohammed, 50, of Pond Lane, School Trace, Gasparillo, died at the San Fernando General Hospital after she fell and hit her head when she was pushed by a male relative during an argument at her home.

Around 3 am on October 11 Anna Innis-Burke was forced out of her Dibe Road, Long Circular, St James home during a domestic dispute and made to walk along Belle Vue Road, where the man stabbed her several times. He later kidnapped her 12-year-old son and fled into the hills nearby. The boy was later found after the police and Defence Force launched a massive mission to find him.