TWENTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD Shondell Hernandez of 121 Courbane Park Annandale, East Coast Demerara, was on Friday morning rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital with three stab wounds: two to her neck and one to her wrist.The stab wounds were reportedly inflicted by the 40-year-old father of her son, whom she dumped some five months ago.
According to information reaching the Guyana Chronicle, the 40-year-old Latchman Avendra Coonjah entered the home of the young lady through a bedroom window while she was at home along with two senior citizens who are not very able-bodied.
The man then ransacked the woman’s bag, stole her money then made his way out of the bedroom and stabbed her to the neck while she was sitting at her breakfast table, all along being unaware that he was inside the house.
After inflicting the almost deadly wound to the woman, the man who lives just around the corner fled the scene and has not been seen since. Last evening when this publication visited the home of the man with whom the young lady has a three-year-old son, his mother refused to comment on the issue.
The aunt of the hospitalised young lady as well as her mother Margaret Hernandez did not hold back in detailing what the young lady has been going through over the past five years that she shared a relationship with the man who was once married.
The Chronicle was told that the man constantly abused the young woman, the same reason that caused his legal marriage to another woman to fall apart.
They said that he would constantly beat the 22-year-old woman and would from time to time insult her in public, even physically fighting with her on the road. The woman in July of this year took a decision to end their relationship and ever since then she has been living an uneasy life.
On Friday, Hernandez was speaking with her sister on the phone and while talking, the sister heard her making an unusual sound and the telephone fell. That was the time that the man exited the room and stabbed her to the neck.
No response
After calling out for Hernandez over the phone and not getting a response, the sister decided to catch a taxi and head up to home knowing fully well that the young lady’s life was always in danger because of the angry man whom she dumped several months earlier.
It was while travelling from Meadow Bank that the elder sister received a call that she should head to the hospital as the young lady was being rushed there.
The aunt that the 22-year-old lives with related that earlier in the morning, she saw the man at the corner of the road but did not say anything to him and opted to walk on the other side of the road to avoid him. She said that she did not see anything suspicious, since she is aware that the man lives a street away, hence, his presence in the area could not be considered unusual.
She related that when she got in to work she called her niece and asked her if she saw the man and the woman responded in the positive, relating that she saw him while taking their young son to school. It was after returning from that errand that the man invaded the home.
The couple had in the past broke up and got back together, but it was after the young woman told the man that she was fed up of the fights and the abuse she was made to endure, he became even more enraged and was always “gunning” for her.
Shondell’s aunt told this publication that one of the man’s daughters called her to ask about the young lady’s condition and how the couple’s son was doing. The aunt however related that she informed the man’s daughter that she could not give out any information on her niece’s medical condition, but informed the man’s daughter that the couple’s son was doing ok.
The family is looking to have the police investigate the matter thoroughly and bring the man, who has since gone into hiding, to justice. Meanwhile, the young lady remains a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital.