Robbers
strangle widow dead
A SIXTY-three-year-old widow of Grove, East Bank Demerara, was found dead in her bed early yesterday morning after two men reportedly broke into the house.
Neighbours
said it appeared that Leila Avatar was strangled in her bed at Lot 200 Grove
Housing Scheme.
They said her body was found lying across her bed, clad only in her underwear. Her hands and feet were bound and her mouth gagged.
The house in which the
woman resided.
Blood
was also visible on her upper body.
Neighbours
said they went into the house at around 06:30 hours yesterday and made the
startling discovery after two children from the neighbourhood, who usually
kept her company at night, raised an alarm.
The reaction of relatives and neighbours as the body of the woman is placed into the hearse from the Lyken's Funeral Home.
Ten-year-old
Reshma and her brother Latish, eight, were in the house when the men broke in.
Latish
who was in the house at the time of the murder.
Others
said they heard nothing strange in the house to suggest that something was
amiss during the night.
The motive for the murder appears to be robbery since residents said that Avatar received money from a money transfer agency the previous day.
Reshma
who was also in the house when the murder occurred
According
to neighbours, the two men entered the house by prising open a window on the
lower flat of the two-storeyed building.
After
entering the house, the men climbed the inside stairs and went into her
bedroom through the open door.
The
window through which the men got into the house is the only one on the lower
flat without bars.
Neighbours
said the men fled through the back of the yard.
They
said Avatar had been living alone since her husband passed away and she had no
children.
The two
children who were staying with her Monday night, were awakened when someone
sprinkled water in their faces, but they were not hurt during the robbery.
Latish
said the only thing he remembered was "someone screaming".
As the
hearse bearing the body left the yard, family members began crying
uncontrollably.
Many neighbours told this newspaper that the widow was always quiet and polite to everyone and was always in her house around 19:00 hours.
