A PARIKA, East Bank Essequibo family was thrown into a state of shock when the lifeless body of 29-year-old Dhanwantie Ram was found in her home early Wednesday morning.
Police are on the hunt for her husband, 28-year-old Ganesh Dhanraj called ‘Andre’, who it is suspected strangled her to death with a bed sheet. According to the police, Dhanwantie was found by a relative motionless, in a sitting position with a bed sheet tied around her neck. But the victim’s sister, who made the gruesome discovery, told this newspaper that the mother of three was discovered slumped on a chair as she kneeled on their living room floor, with the rope around the neck and covered with a carpet.

Police in a release stated that the suspect was seen fleeing his house towards the backdam. The victim was rushed to the Leonora Cottage Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival. Her body is at the Ezekiel Funeral Home awaiting a post-mortem examination.
Investigations have so far revealed that four days ago, Dhanwantie decided to end the abusive relationship she shared with the man for several years; she left his house with her three children and went to live at her residence at Parika Façade. On Tuesday evening the suspect, a Labourer, went to the victim’s house and demanded that she return to his home.She refused and he allegedly abused her and left.
At about 06:00hrs Wednesday, the victim was on her way to the Parika Police Station to lodge a report against the suspect, when he intercepted and took her to his home where he allegedly killed her.

YEARS OF ABUSE
When the Guyana Chronicle visited the murder scene Wednesday, relatives of the suspect gathered at the home, while the dead woman’s relatives comforted each other at the sister’s house, a short distance away.
The dead woman’s sister, Latchmie Jailall called ‘Bibi’,told the Guyana Chronicle her sister had escaped unbearable abuse from her reputed husband some days ago and sought refuge at a relative’s home, after fights between the two which started last Thursday, intensified.
According to the family, the suspect stalked the woman and even tried to bully her in an attempt to take her home one night.However, her family intervened and he left,but returned several times during the course of the night.
“And 11 O’clock in the night I hear the back gate fall (and) this one open… she seh Andre went in pon she. So me say Sister this nah look good (and) me leh she bring them two children and come over by me fuh sleep. The night me see am deh (the front of her yard). When me call fuh am he run and he hide,” the woman said.
She said at that point she went downstairs to the house next door and invited her sister to move with the children to her house for the rest of the night.
“Next morning he collect everything wha she carry inside the house (and) he carry away everything.”
The woman said she visited her Brother-in-law at his home and asked him about her sister’s things but he said he did not care about what she enquired of.
According to the sister, the woman left to go to the police station, but ended up at the husband’s house instead,so she went to see what happened but was locked outside. Jailall said the man accused her of encouraging her sister to leave him and he prevented her from going into the home even as her sister sobbed uncontrollably inside. It was then that she sent a ‘please call me’ message to her father who called almost immediately and advised her to stay at the home until he reaches there from Meten-Meer-Zorg.

“He push me out the house and he lock the door. She a cry and she want come out and he nah want she come out. Daddy tell me don’t move from deh,leh me stand up there and wait,” the sister explained.
After a while, the sister decided to leave for home to prepare the children for school. She later returned at the scene and observed all the windows closed,with only the bottom half of the door to the shack opened. She conducted a search but her sister’s body was hidden under a carpet. Her father called again and asked her to search thoroughly.It was then that she discovered the body.
“Me search the whole house. Me nah pay attention that she bin deh pon the chair. Yuh know like when the chair deh deh you throw the mat pon am… me nah pay attention… Me holler inside the house… me seh ayo see if ma see wha ma see, and me start cry,” Jailall related.
She said a sheet was wrapped tightly around her sister’s neck and she was in a kneeling position with half of her body slumped on a chair in the living room and the other half on the ground. The woman’s father, Bagot Ram Jailall told Guyana Chronicle that his daughter endured the abusive relationship for years and he had been peacemaker between the couple several times.
“When he drink he rum he always a beat she. I talk to he yesterday. He call me. I tell he when he sober call me.”
The man said he was in shock when he heard his daughter was killed even before he made it there. Relatives also said that on Thursday last, when the woman returned from her job as a domestic worker, she became upset after she saw the suspect, an alcoholic, consuming rum again.

SURRENDER
Meanwhile, the suspect’s mother, Pearl Ferreira, called on him to surrender to police. She told the Guyana Chronicle her son had complained many times that his relationship is under severe pressure and had visited her home around 7:00hrs Wednesday. She said even though her son attempted a conversation, she observed no sign of depression on his face. He left quickly and shortly after someone informed her husband of the murder.

“He and he wife always get problem… Yesterday he come by me telling me she go way, she don’t want to come back. And this morning about 7 O’ clock he come by me;he say ‘mammy wha yuh doing?’… I seh I ain’t doin nothing. He walk off and say, ‘a going then’. I seh alright but he ain’t tell me if he do anything or not. He look normal,” Ferreira told the Guyana Chronicle.
Ferreira said the two were together some fifteen years and shared three children:two girls – ages 10 and 7 – and a boy, 8. The two younger children lived with their parents while the older girl lives with the grandmother, closer to the backdam area.