POLICE have disclosed that they are treating the death of Ajay Budhan, a 26-year-old farmer of Long Creek, Soesdyke-Linden Highway and Ashley Singh, an 18-year-old female of Soesdyke, as a murder/suicide.

According to a press release, the incident occurred between 00:30 hours and 06:30 hours on Monday on a trail at Long Creek.
Investigations revealed that Budhan was a licensed firearm holder of a semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun and the owner of a white Toyota Tundra, GAD 8403.

Budhan and Singh were said to be in a relationship, and at around 00:30 hours, they left a resort located at Hill Foot, Soesdyke-Linden Highway, in Budhan’s vehicle.
According to a 23-year-old labourer of Long Creek, he was riding a motorcycle that he had borrowed from a friend when he saw the white Tundra parked on the northern side of a trail with its lights on and what appeared to be a bullet hole in the right side front door glass. He became suspicious and reported this to the police.

Police arrived at the scene and found Singh slumped in the right-side front seat with what appeared to be a gunshot entry wound on the right side neck and an exit wound to the left side neck and shoulder.

Budhan was seen on the ground, face up, on the left side of the vehicle, with a gunshot wound to the right side of his head. To the right of his body was his shotgun.
The shotgun was examined, and a round was found in the breach. 18 empty 12-gauge casings and nine live 12-gauge cartridges were found at the scene.
Two Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max cellphones, one belonging to Budhan and the other to Singh, were also found.

Budhan’s body was identified by his brother Aaron Budhan, a 30-year-old farmer of Loo Creek, while Singh was identified by her cousin, Roland Baya, a 29-year-old of Hill Foot.
The bodies were escorted to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, where they were pronounced dead on arrival by a doctor. They were then escorted to the Memorial Gardens Funeral Home to await a post-mortem examination.