JOEL Rodriguez, the Cuban man who allegedly knifed and hammered his partner and her daughter to death, has confessed to the crime and disclosed that he killed the child because she was a witness, police have confirmed.
The suspect, also known as Yoel Rodriguez Barientos, was arrested Sunday night at Amelia’s Ward, Linden.
He allegedly murdered Tara Krishnaran, 34, who was a salesgirl, and her daughter, Larissa Singh, 11, sometime between 20:00hrs on Christmas Day and 21:00hrs on Boxing Day.
Charges are expected soon as investigations continue.

After receiving the report of the murders on Saturday night, investigators visited the scene and discovered the mother and daughter in a bedroom at their Princes Street, Lodge, Georgetown residence by the woman’s father who also resides there.
The police said that the woman was discovered with a wound to the back of the head, left side temple and left side of the face. Meanwhile, her daughter had a wound, about six inches in length, to her neck and what appeared to be blood on her private part. The suspected murder weapons – a blood stained hammer and knife – were also retrieved.
The bodies were taken to the Lyken’s Funeral Home.An autopsy conducted on the mother and her daughter found that they died from blunt trauma to the head.

According to the police report, the woman’s father said the couple had an argument on Christmas Day and since such arguments were common, he went to bed.
However, on Boxing Day, he did not check on them as he thought the woman went to work and took her daughter along with her.
Later that night, however, the elderly man realised that he was locked inside the house and went into the room of the victims when he made the gruesome discovery; his grand-daughter was lying on the ground and his daughter was lying on the bed.

The Guyana Chronicle understands that the woman, her daughter and the alleged killer lived in the house, which belongs to the woman’ father, for about eight months.
The woman met the Cuban man at the store where she worked and they were in a relationship for more than a year.
Reports indicate that the man would accompany Krishnaran to family functions but relatives noted that he appeared to be a jealous individual.
“We would be together (at a family function) and a boy could walk in, even if it was my brothers… if they just looked at her, he would get angry about it,” the relative said.