Poonsammy Gopaul, paternal uncle of brutally-slain Neesa Lalita Gopaul, says that his dead brother and father of Neesa and Miriam, Moonsammy Gopaul, was a very loving and generous man to everyone, but that his two daughters were his reasons for living. But his love for his children, whom he called his “little princesses”, made him – and eventually his children, the victim of avariciousness, licentiousness and inhumane cruelty of a magnitude that defies understanding, much less description.
Moonsammy Gopaul was a wealthy businessman from Crabwood Creek who often visited the city to conduct business, which sometimes entailed social interactions with associates.  On one such visit he met a very poor but flashy young woman with whom he began a relationship, eventually relocating to live with her in Leonora on the West Coast of Demerara, where her relatives reside.  He bought a house and furnished it with every luxury imaginable.
He married Naree Khayoum after Neesa was born, but the marriage was less than ideal, because the woman refused to give up her lifestyle.  She eventually left him to live with a younger man, taking away money and his young daughter, to whom he had access only on weekends – times he lived for.  She lived with her lover for six years, during which time Moonsammy gave her $10,000 a week and everything possible to ensure that his daughter did not want for anything during the six years her mother lived with her lover.
Naree subsequently filed for a divorce, but before it became final she begged Moonsammy for reconciliation.  His grieving siblings said that he was so besotted with the woman that he relented, even agreeing to convert to Islam in conformity with her family’s wishes; but his life spiraled out of control from then, because Naree did not give up her lifestyle, even after the birth of little Miriam.
In July of 2009 she used a credit card to withdraw $1 million and moved out to be with Leroy aka Barry Small, leaving the children with her parents, and parking the car at a gas station.  She moved back home after a week and on 20th September 2009 Moonsammy was dead.  Two weeks after she moved her lover, Barry Small, into her children’s home.
Moonsammy’s brother and other relatives said that, despite the fact that he was diabetic and used insulin, they had left their brother alive and seemingly well merely days before.  Neesa cried out to many deaf ears that her father’s death was not natural.
His brother, Poonsammy, with whom he conducted business, said that his brother had in his possession at the time of his death an approximate US $60,000, plus much money in bank accounts to which Neesa had access through a bank card.  The property, vehicles and other assets were left to the two girls. Poonsammy said that, although he invited the widow to continue the joint business, she cut off all ties with Moonsammy’s family, even disconnecting the phone.  Because of the nature of her lover’s personality, and his attitude, the family no longer felt comfortable visiting their late brother’s home and Naree disallowed them contact with the children.
However, some of Moonsammy’s relatives who reside abroad received a message on facebook from Neesa months before she died that her mother and one of her sisters were forcing her to transfer the property to the mother.  Without going into details she also indicated that she had much more to relate to them, but could not do that on facebook, then contact was completely cut off, until they received the shocking news of the child’s brutal death.
The relatives said that property is not much of an issue with them so they did not follow up on Neesa’s complaint, but that no-one, not even Neesa’s grandparents nor aunt and uncle, all of whom were aware of her yearlong ordeal and had complete access to the children, informed them of the children’s situation, and they left the two children to the mercy of their daughter and her rapacious lover, despite Neesa’s pleas for them to take her and Miriam away from their living hell.
Neesa’s maternal grandfather Khyoum also said openly that his daughter had told him that the man said he had planned long to get the property, even if he had to kill everyone to succeed, yet he made no attempts to keep the children, hide them away, or even smuggle them to their paternal relatives, even though the latter had ample resources to take care of the children.  They did not even mention to probation officers the probability of this as a solution to the children’s plight.  Whether those officials would have listened is another matter.  He told police that he knew that Barry Small was molesting his granddaughter, because the man would sleep in between the two females, with his hand resting on Neesa.
Moonsammy’s younger sister, Krishnama Sukhra, said that her brother was a very loving brother, who was like a father figure to his siblings.  They were a close-knit family with enormous resources and interests in logging and tourism, with Moonsammy being responsible for the import/export aspect of the family business.  He included his wife’s family in his largesse, so much so that their little dilapidated zinc cottage was replaced by a spacious concrete structure and the elder Khyoum, who was a sickly pensioner, never had to struggle to provide for his family.
Moonsammy Gopaul’s siblings found it very painful that such generosity was repaid with the callous betrayal that allowed their brother’s helpless children to undergo such horrendous suffering without attempting to protect them, or at least allowing them (the paternal relatives) the opportunity to attempt to rescue the children.     
The siblings related a sad tale where Naree did not inform any of Moonsammy’s relatives of his death and buried him before most of them could reach his home from Berbice after they were informed of his death by someone else.
Their request for Naree to return the transport of their parents’ substantial property in Berbice, which had been left in the possession of the eldest and “very reliable” brother Moonsammy was ignored.
Krishnama and her husband desperately wants custody of little 5-year-old Miriam.  They have ample resources.  They are a close-knit, well-off family, with cousins living nearby.  They are very healthy and, with all of their children residing overseas, Krishnama says that they will cherish her brother’s remaining daughter, who is accustomed to luxuries that her brother had provided, but which was snatched from the two children.  She says that her family can restore that life to Miriam and that, if she gets custody of the child, she would receive the same sort of loving and protected upbringing that her own children had been provided with.
Even the Gopaul siblings living abroad are willing to create a new life away from all the horrible associations and memories of life after her father’s death by adopting her.
Neesa Lalita Gopaul was a brilliant, young, beautiful girl whom, prior to her father’s death, schoolmates describe as a “happy girl who always got top grades and was liked by everyone who knew her”.  She became sixteen on 16th September, my son’s birthday.   She was a brilliant and wise girl who could have run away from her terrible situation and survived with the money her father had provided her.
But she stayed in her hell because she was determined to protect “her baby” Miriam, whom she is convinced was born at her request, and whom she took under her care until she died.  She is no longer able to protect Miriam, but could the systems and the people who failed her ensure that her life did not go in vain?
Miriam needs to be taken completely out of an uncaring environment, where the life of her elder sister was sacrificed to the avariciousness of many persons who were most likely amply rewarded for disregarding the terrible conditions under which both minors existed.
She needs a new life with loving family, even though she is not very familiar with them, who could enable her to forget her terrible ordeals, the loss of her loving sister, and create a new world of emotional, financial and psychological security for her.
She needs a life with persons who see her, not with dollar-signed blinkers, but as their loving brother’s last charge and who would cherish her in an environment cushioned by loving cousins, aunts, uncles, as well as a multitude of caring persons who comprise the community to which her father belonged since childhood.
Above all she needs adoptive parents who are not sickly and liable to die suddenly, thus further traumatizing her.  She needs a life where her security and her life should not be threatened by persons who covet the wealth her father left her.
The property that her father left her should be sold, with the money placed in a trust fund until she becomes adult, and she should be removed from every vestige of her distressing life, no matter how familiar it currently is.  She needs to walk into the light of the brighter tomorrow that Neesa was not allowed.  The system failed Neesa; it should not fail Miriam, whom today is the sole heiress of her father’s property, which he gifted his girls in a desperate attempt to protect them – unaware that by doing so he was inflicting on them a death sentence.
Greed killed Neesa; it should not be allowed to kill Miriam.  Let her walk in the light of the torch that her sister shone in her life.  A loving father craved security for his children and a cluster of criminals deprived them of that security – and of life itself of one child; but there are loving arms waiting to create a cushion of love and security for the other child.  Humanity should not be found wanting once more.   Miriam should live so that Moonsammy and Neesa’s souls find peace.  The society that failed Neesa owes them that.