NEIGHBOURS of 73-year-old Suroojpattie Ramlakhan, known as ‘Auntie Carmen’, found her dead body lying naked on the bedroom floor of her Richmond village, Essequibo Coast home early yesterday morning, after they had unsuccessfully tried several times to alert her that an anaconda (camoudie) was eating one of her chickens in a drain near the street.The childless woman had reportedly lived alone.

Neighbours said they called several times for ‘Auntie Carmen’ but there was no answer. They said the front door to her house was locked, so they ventured into the yard and went to the back of the house, where they discovered the door open. They called her name again but there was no answer; so, becoming suspicious that something was wrong, they peeped inside the house and, to their shock and horror, saw ‘Auntie Carmen’ lying naked on the floor, seemingly dead.

They then raised an alarm and informed the police. Reports are that the woman, who had been a very friendly and jovial person in the community, had seemingly been brutally raped and murdered during Thursday night or early Friday morning.

Investigators discovered several condoms at the scene. The body of the dead woman was removed by police officers to the Suddie mortuary, but as news of the elderly woman’s gruesome fate spread throughout the community, a large crowd gathered at the scene, and several residents called on the police to have more patrols in the village during the night, and to remove gangs of young men from loitering on the streets during late hours in the night.

Police investigations are ongoing.

(By Rajendra Prabhulall)