NEIGHBOUR KILLS NEIGHBOUR

AFTER hitting his neighbour on the head with a length of iron during a fight on Saturday night, a Maracas man got a shock when he  awoke yesterday morning to find the body of his neighbour lying  on the ground outside his home.

The frightened man alerted police, who arrived and found Marlon Naldoo, 46-year-old out-patient of the St Ann’s Hospital, lying on the ground with a single wound to the head. Police have since detained Naldoo’s neighbour and seized a “luchette’ (a length of iron used to dig holes for posts). The suspect reportedly told police he thought that Naldoo was knocked unconscious with the blow to the head, and was not aware that Naldoo in fact had died. According to police reports, around 7.05 pm on Saturday, Naldoo, 46, who was unemployed and lived alone in a shack at Tyrico Bay Road, Maracas was armed with a cutlass and walking towards his home when he got into an argument with his 41-year-old neighbour, who was holding the luchette.

Police sources said Naldoo swung the cutlass at his neighbour, who blocked the blow with the luchette and struck Naldoo across the head with the piece of iron. When Naldoo slumped to the ground, his neighbour went home apparently thinking that Naldoo had been knocked unconscious. Sometime later, the man went to bed, unaware that Naldoo’s body was still lying outside his home. When the man awoke at 6 am yesterday, he was shocked to find Naldoo’s corpse lying on the ground. The man quickly went to the Maracas Bay police station and reported the incident. He was accompanied back to the scene by police officers, who seized a length of iron, which is believed to be the murder weapon. Visiting the scene were Supt Waldron Bishop, ASP Gregory Correia, Ag Insp Coa, Sgt Keith Louison, Cpl Francis Vidale, WPC Elizabeth Derrell  and others. DMO Dr Ruby Lue Chee Lip made the trek up a hill to the crime scene where she viewed the body and ordered it removed to the Port-of-Spain Mortuary.

An autopsy will be carried out today at the Forensic Sciences Centre, following which investigators will take the autopsy report and case file to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson, who will then decide on what charges will be laid. Relatives who spoke to Newsday said Naldoo was not married, had no children and lived alone in a galvanize shack. Naldoo’s nephew Lincoln John told Newsday the dead man was recently relieved of his duties at the Ministry of Health and was receiving a cheque from the Government, on which he survived. “He was a real brains man. He liked to read plenty books,” John told Newsday. The man later became emotional as he entered Naldoo’s humble home. “He was a real good man not violent or anything,” said John. Sgt Keith Louison of Maracas Bay police is continuing investigations.