The pensioner, 68, who lived with her
44-year-old daughter, Basmattie Rampersaud nicknamed
‘Sandy’ and granddaughter, Shivanie Rampersaud,
13, died at the hands of three bandits.
Gained
entry by removing several
window panes
The other occupants of the house
were asleep when the robbers gained
entry by removing several window panes and
opening the front door.
Basmattie
and her teenaged daughter, Shivanie Rampersaud,
who survived the robbery yesterday, surrounded by
neighbours.
Basmattie Rampersaud, grieving over
the loss, told the Guyana Chronicle she was awakened
by the muffled screams of her mother in another
bedroom, about midnight Sunday.
“I got up to investigate and I saw
three men with my mother on the bed. She was already
bound and gagged and, when they saw me, they hauled me
into the bedroom and tied me up and threw me to the
floor,” the survivor recalled in tears.
She said the attackers, armed with
knives and a handgun, ordered her not to look at their
faces and also tied up her daughter.
The trio took away
jewels worth about $1M, $150,000 cash and some foreign
currency, said Basmattie.
She lamented that her mother was not
sick and was always busy around the house doing some
chore.
“They just took her life like
that,” Basmattie mourned.
She said the assailants stole beers,
cake, cigarettes and two cell phones, too, from their
small grocery.
According to her, one of the bandits
claimed he did not want to cooperate with the others
in the killing.
The victim was bound with a piece of
the material used to package cement and duct taped her
mouth and nose, so she could not breathe.
“After they threatened to rape my
daughter, I told them where to find everything I had
but they wanted more and I begged them to leave us, as
that was all we had,” Basmattie said.
The traumatised teen, Shivanie
confirmed that she was ordered not to look at the
perpetrators and listened silently while her mother
pleaded with the men not to hurt them.
The teenager said, when she was
thrown to the floor, she hit herself and suffered a
gash on her chin but was forced to remain lying beside
her mother while the men demanded their booty.
The girl said the bandits spent
about an hour in their house while the next door
neighbour was having drinks and, as usual, playing
music loudly.
“We screamed but no one heard us
because of the loud music,” she related, adding that
they finally got to realise her grandmother was dead
and alerted neighbours after untying themselves.
She said, after the robbery, the
bandits telephoned for a car to transport them and one
robber told her: “We are leaving ‘lil’ girl.
Take care.”
Shivanie remembered that, earlier
that night, she had seen a man standing outside their
house but did not bother to tell her mother.
“I now realise that I should have
told my mom, because she might have called the Police
and prevented the robbery which claimed the life of my
grandmother,” the girl said.
Tuesday,
October 21 2008
