SEVENTEEN-year-old Nathan Persaud, also known as Junior, yesterday expressed his disgust at the alleged role his mother Gwendolyn Persaud played in the murder of his father Nathan Persaud, also known as “Andrew”, who was found dead in his Herstelling, East Bank Demerara home on Thursday last.He said that the entire ordeal was shocking and “messed up” as it came from a family member. “That right there is shocking to see your own family ending up doing that, you would believe that she might be part of it but to actually plan it, that is just messed up, what mommy did is just messed up,” the young man told the Guyana Chronicle.
Asked if he will ever find it in his heart to forgive his mother for allegedly playing a role in ending the life of his father, the junior Nathan Persaud said that he will have to forgive his mother at some point but he will never forget what she did. “I could forgive but I cannot forget, you have to come to the point in life where you have to forgive in order to live in peace because if you do not forgive it will always be with you like a kind of grudge,” the young Persaud related.
Nathan Persaud’s wife allegedly hired a hitman to kill him in order to seize total control of a property that the couple owns in Diamond, also on the East Bank Demerara, according to what she told the police on Sunday when questioned over her role in the man’s demise. She was arrested on Saturday when word broke that she and the man were locked in a bitter property dispute.
Also on Sunday, the mother of the dead man said that she is heartbroken and felt betrayed by a daughter-in-law that she treated as one of her children. “That girl never worked for anything, me and my daughter helped him to start his life, I don’t know how I will go my way, I don’t know how I will walk because that son was the apple of my eyes,” the elderly woman lamented. According to the United States-based woman, Sylvia Persaud, she has not seen her son in three years but they would usually converse very often on the phone. She said too that since he began having issues with his wife following their divorce petition, they spoke almost twice daily as she would encourage him to stay strong.
“I feel very sad, betrayed by that girl because I was a good mother-in-law to her. If she sick I am there, if anything wrong to her I am there, I am now 76-years- old and have to go through this at my age and it is very hurtful, I am distressed,” the grieving mother told the Guyana Chronicle. Mrs. Persaud explained that “things were very hard for her son” when the breakup started and his wife kicked her sons and husband out of the house that they shared in Diamond at the time, forcing him to seek refuge at Herstelling where his parents own a house.
The woman stressed that all Nathan Persaud was fighting for, was that his sons should have access to the house and the property should something happen to him in life, but from all indications his wife wanted it all. “This is my house here in Herstelling, he came here to live with his sons because she put him and the children out, put all of them out and leave her smallest son at the Diamond house. Things started to get rough with her, she wanted all and she also wanted my son gone,” the mother added.
Scared for his life
Sylvia said that on the day that her son was murdered she spoke with him for 45 minutes. During that conversation he reportedly told her that he was scared for his life and she encouraged him to visit the police station and make a report but for some reason her son did not. The man also reportedly communicated his fears to his lawyer who also encouraged him to visit the police station after he heard that the woman was planning to kill him. The man reportedly told his mother that he was not willing to go to the police because women have a way of having the upper hand at police stations when they make counter reports against men. Nathan was himself a Rural Constable, according to his mother.
The man then made a decision to call the woman and warn her against harming him since according to his mother he told her that if anything happened to him it would make things bad for his sons, whose papers are being processed to travel out to the United States, this publication was told.
Nathan is presently the holder of a 10-year United States visa but decided that he was not leaving the country with his children behind because two of them are still in school and he wanted to ensure that he remained in Guyana to see his sons get access to the family property at Diamond and get their papers completed to leave the country.
Mrs. Persaud who sang high praises to the Guyana Police Force and the ranks of the Criminal Investigation Department, said that she was pleased with the work done so far to crack the case of her son’s murder but lamented that the actual killer of her son was still out there in the public space and he needs to also be brought to justice. The mother of the dead man told the Chronicle that if her daughter-in-law wanted $15 million, the family would have found that money and provided her with it rather than her killing the father of her children. She went on to state that based on her information the lawyers for both sides were to meet on September 25 to discuss the way forward with the disputed property.
According to her, her son did indicate to his wife that all he wanted was for a little piece of the said property at Diamond to live while ensuring that his sons occupied the home also and that the woman could have also kept the small drinking bar that she operates at the premises.
Mrs. Persaud said that her daughter-in-law was a bully who controlled her son’s life and had him doing everything that she wanted. However, Gwendolyn Persaud, the dead man’s wife had told persons that she was the object of abuse at the hands of the man while they lived together. “He is a good father to his children, he cook meals, buy groceries and look after them because they live here with him,” the mother added. She said that they are preparing to bury Nathan Persaud.

By Leroy Smith