SHURMA Mentore, 24, of Lot 13 ‘D’ Field, Dennis Street, Sophia, Greater Georgetown, was murdered in her backyard yesterday, by a jealous lover who slashed her throat. Her assailant, miner Akeito Clay, 26, is under Police guard at Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where he underwent surgery for wounds he inflicted on himself in a failed suicide bid.
He fled the scene after killing the woman but, subsequently, went to the GPH for medical attention.
Salyma Curdis, a cousin of the deceased, told the Guyana Chronicle that, about 11:50hrs, the bloodied body of Mentore was discovered by her three-year-old brother, who informed the others of her demise before the police were summoned.
Curdis said the couple were quarreling before she encouraged them to go downstairs and Clay used the opportunity to commit the murder.
Mentore suffered several slashes as she tried to defend herself.
Curdis said the relationship between her cousin and Clay had always been stormy since they met a year ago, as the latter had a jealous streak and monitored Mentore’s every move. But, yesterday, during their quarrel, she informed him she no longer wanted him in her life.
It, apparently, angered him and he, forcefully, took her to the back yard where he slit her throat and also slashed her about the body.
Curdis admitted that Clay was abusive to Mentore, often physically but, only last week, the couple journeyed from his hometown, Dartmouth, Essequibo Coast, to her Sophia home.
She added that although most of Mentore’s family members were at home when she was murdered, they were unaware of what had taken place because they heard no screams or anything to alert them to the tragedy until her sibling discovered the corpse in the backyard.
At the scene, pools of blood were evident on a zinc sheet near a coconut tree in the vicinity of a fence.
Police, meanwhile, said they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of the itinerant vendor Mentore, whose body was found behind her home, about 11:45hrs, with wounds to her throat.
The suspect, with whom the deceased shared a common law relationship, was later found at the GPH, where he is receiving medical attention for injuries to his throat, chest and abdomen, police said.