Brutal teen rape, murder:
Cops grill relative, others
By Jeune Bailey Van-Keric

SLAIN: Roshni Pertabsingh
POLICE probing the brutal rape and murder of teenager Roshni Pertabsingh, called Indira, yesterday questioned several persons, including a relative and the elderly woman she was a night companion to for years, sources said.

A post-mortem examination by Government Pathologist, Dr. Nehaul Singh, at the New Amsterdam Hospital, yesterday showed the 16-year-old student died from asphyxiation and a severed trachea (throat). Sources confirmed the examination showed the girl was also raped.

Roshni was slain in the house of Budhia, also known as ‘Dodo Girl’, 65, at Bangal Street, Plantation Warren, Corentyne, Berbice.

She was writing the Caribbean Secondary Certificate Examinations now under way and had been the companion at nights for her neighbour Budhia, whose husband has been living for six months a year in the United States.

Neighbours, hearing shouts during the early hours of Wednesday morning, went to the home where they saw the student on a bed in one of the two bedrooms on the upper flat of the two-storeyed building.

Her throat was slashed, her underwear was pulled down to her ankles and there were cuts about her private parts.
TERRIBLE LOSS: parents Madan and Bhojmattie Pertabsingh with another of their children yesterday
In the wake of the horrific killing which has left villagers in deep shock, Police took into custody several persons. A relative is said to be assisting the sleuths with their investigations.

Also escorted to the New Amsterdam Police Station yesterday morning was Budhia, who after intense questioning by the cops was released and sent home yesterday.
The elderly woman said she was awakened by an unknown man who covered her mouth before taking her to the lower flat of the house, where a disabled man dwelt, and put her in one of the bedrooms. There, her hands and feet were bound with electrical wire, and her mouth gagged, she related yesterday.

Budhia said she managed to work the gag aside and rush over to a neighbour for help.

She said Roshni had closed the doors of the house earlier in the evening before they went to bed.

Budhia was very upset with claims by some villagers that she might have knowledge about the murder of the teen.

“I love the girl like my own daughter, I can’t harm her”, she said.
NIGHT COMPANION GONE: Budhia at home yesterday
She said the tragedy has affected her so much that she was unable to visit the home of Roshni’s parents, four lots away.

“I did not get to go. I don’t know if I will; maybe on the day of the funeral”, she said.

Roshni’s mother recalled that her daughter was very hesitant in going to the neighbour’s house hours before her brutal death.

Bhojmattie Pertabsingh yesterday also remembered what she described as a dream which her daughter shared with her last week. According to the woman, her daughter related that while she was asleep in the neighbour’s house, the house suddenly became dark.

During that period, she related, the teen said she felt a pair of hands moving up and down her thighs.

The male attempted to remove her underwear but as she turned towards him, he moved away, the mother remembered Roshni telling her.

The mother of five said that when her daughter related the incident, she presumed it had been a dream and did not take it seriously.

Now, she is wondering if it was all real.

Roshni began sleeping over at the elderly woman about three years ago.
She is expected to be buried on Sunday in her village.

Friday, June 09, 2006