…bloodied rolling pin found at the scene, suspect in custody
A school girl returning home yesterday afternoon, was horrified  on discovering the bloodied body of her mother lying lifeless in the hallway of their home at 42 Mudflat , Stanleytown , New Amsterdam, Berbice.
Grade six student Nikita Hughes, had left her mother, Verone Patoir, preparing to launder the family’s clothing , when she, along with her sisters, left their home to  attend school.
The St Aloysius Pupil, in company with relatives, recounted to the Berbice media, that she had collected money for a snack from her mother and was about to leave home when she observed, a friend of her mother, whom is referred to as ‘Uncle Suresh’, seated in his parked hire car a short distance away.
The pre teen said she observed another identifiable male , who, along with a student of Vryman’s Erven Secondary School, was also seated in the vehicle, before she and her siblings, Oshanna and Kathy, joined the car which transported them to school.
On returning home at about 14:55hrs, she mounted the backstairs and was a bit taken aback on finding the back door ajar. On entering the kitchen, then subsequently the hallway, she saw her mother’s feet and blood on the floor boards. Fearing the worst, she called for her younger sister and ran from the house, alerting the neighbours.

As  news of the tragedy spread in the closely knit community, hundreds gathered at the house, even as crime scene investigators scoured the scene for clues.
Efforts to get a glimpse of the body as it was taken from the home by undertakers into the waiting hearse proved futile for onlookers, as it was wrapped securely. However, sources said that the face was battered, the hair from her head was uprooted, revealing the scalp, and the throat was slit.
A bloodied rolling pin was removed from the scene.
A hire car driver, who was plying his trade when he was arrested, was taken to the scene by cops who acted on a tip off. His head remained bowed when residents questioned him as to what had got into his head to commit such an act. He was taken away and is currently in custody at Central Police Station.
Meanwhile,  sister of the deceased, Mildred Persaud, recalled sharing with her sibling a close relationship which became strained after her sister commenced a relationship with the suspect.
“We were very close, but when she started the friendship with ‘Suresh’, he started to tell her all kinds of things about me, and we hardly used to talk to each other. I saw her last week in the market and she barely spoke to me. The children [referring to her nieces] complained to me last week, that he [the suspect] visited, and being armed with a gun, threatened to kill her. They said he later told their mother that he was just making a joke.”
Friends of the deceased, who gathered at the scene, collectively said the forty-year-old woman was in an abusive relationship.’  He [referring to the suspect] only looked quiet, but he was controlling.
“He did not want her to socialize much, but we still used to gaff.”
According to relatives, the reputed husband of the deceased, Loyston Hughes, is residing overseas, and was in the process of sending for the children as Patoir had applied for their passports.