Father drowns two children, hangs himself
…domestic problems lead to murder, suicide
DOMESTIC problems have driven a father to drown his two children, aged 2 and 4 years, and commit suicide by hanging.

The grim murder/suicide took place on Tuesday night, at Adventure on the Essequibo Coast, when Chunilall Persaud drowned his two children in a trench and then hanged himself from a mango tree.

Reports reaching the Guyana Chronicle said Persaud, 25, who was a mechanic, had domestic problems with his wife, Shavaine Angue.

Tuesday night he got into an argument with his wife, and left the house around 22:30hrs, telling her that he was taking the children to their grandmother’s house.

The wife said he never came back during the night, and she was not worried about the children as they often went over to their grandmother’s, not far away.
But yesterday morning, the mechanic’s father, Rampat Persaud, on his way to his rice field, discovered his son’s body hanging from a mango tree some half a mile from his home.
He rushed to his son’s home and when he heard that the children were not there, he hurried to their grandmother’s home, but they were not there either.
Then a neighbour found the two children floating in a nearby trench.
A large crowd gathered at the scene, and many cried openly as the bodies of the children were removed from the trench.
The mother of the children fainted several times as she screamed their names in anguish.

In the presence of the police, her husband’s body was cut down from the mango tree by relatives.
A pall of gloom settled over the community as word of the tragedy spread from household to household.
Neighbours said that the marriage, which lasted for five years, was an unhappy one.
The couple quarrelled often, and reports said things got worse recently over text messages on the wife’s cell phone.

POLICE STATEMENT:
Meanwhile, the police, in a statement yesterday on the incident, said it is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Ranveer Persaud,  27 years, and his two children Viya Persaud, 5 years, and Shiva Persaud, 4 years, of Adventure, Essequibo Coast, whose bodies were found at the back of his father’s residence at about 05:30hrs today.

Investigations revealed that at about 20:30hrs last night Ranveer Persaud had a domestic dispute with his wife and shortly after he left the home with the two children for his father’s residence at Adventure.

However at about 05:30hrs today Ranveer Persaud was found hanging from a tree at the back of  his father’s yard and the bodies of Viya and Shiva Persaud  were found a short distance  away in a pond. It is suspected that Ranveer Persaud may have killed the children after which he committed suicide.

The bodies of Ranveer Persaud, Viya Persaud and Shiva Persaud were taken to the Suddie Hospital mortuary awaiting post mortem examinations.