–in borough’s first murder-suicide for 2018

IN what has been described as the borough’s first murder for 2018, a Guyanese woman was fatally stabbed on Monday by her allegedly abusive husband in Queens, New York.

According to the New York Daily News, Stacy Singh, a 26-year-old mother of two small children, was stabbed repeatedly in the back and left face down in the couple’s Richmond Hill home on 103rd Avenue near 113th Street.

The woman’s husband, Vinny Loknath, 46, reportedly hanged himself later from a tree in a city park. Singh had migrated from Guyana five years ago. She lived at Novar, Mahaicony, before leaving these shores.
The report quotes police sources as saying that the authorities in New York were investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide, after the bodies were discovered about three hours apart on New Year’s Day.

A knife was found near Singh’s body when the police arrived around 14:00hrs on New Year’s Day.
Loknath committed suicide just after 11:00hrs in Forest Park, about 1½ miles from the murder scene, sources said. He was found hanging from a tree in the park.

Loknath “was very abusive to her,” said the dead woman’s brother-in-law, Romain Shaw.
According to Shaw, Loknath was drinking heavily and using cocaine when family members gathered on New Year’s Eve at a Queens restaurant.
“He was so drunk, so very drunk,” said Shaw. “He always beat her up when he went home high.”

The report stated that a neighbour recounted that the couple fought constantly, recalling one incident that ended with the battered wife leaving their home in an ambulance.
“The cops are always there,” the neighbour said. “They were always having big fights, but she still came back to him.” The couple had a five-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter.

The neighbour said that though Loknath was into construction, he was often seen sitting on the front stoop of the house, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.