Granny, 74, stabbed to death

According to reports Cynthia Matthews, who lives alone, was at home when it is believed that intruders broke into the house and attacked her.

She was stabbed repeatedly about the body by the bandits who then ransacked the house and carted away valuables.

Sunday Newsday understands relatives began calling the home of Matthews and when they got no reply they became suspicious. Police officers were alerted and they accompanied relatives to the house where they found the bloodied body of Matthews in a bedroom lying on a bed.

Homicide officers were summoned to the scene along with Port-of-Spain officers. Up until late yesterday the scene was being processed by a team of officers. Sunday Newsday understands Heerah, who also lived in the East, was informed of his aunt’s demise. He went to the crime scene where he was seen in a distressed state.

Contacted yesterday, Heerah said the murder was shocking.

“This is a woman who posed no harm or threat to anyone but I heard that here was a struggle and she may have put up a good fight.

But I am trusting that the authorities would do all the find the killer or killers,” he added. He said when elderly people in a country are murdered and other people as well it indicates that crime is spiralling out of control and citizens seems helpless on how to protect themselves and their loved ones.

He described his aunt as an independent person who loved her relatives dearly and added that to break the news to her children and grandchildren would be very difficult.

He however promised that relatives would come together to provide the necessary emotional and other support needed at this time.

Matthews is a grandmother of six and her children all live abroad.

Police believe the motive was robbery and they are hoping to get surveillance footage from nearby residents to assist them in solving this murder. Homicide officers are also probing the murder of an unidentified man whose headless body was found in bushes at Edna Hill, Lopinot shortly after 10 am yesterday.

According to reports, a Lopinot villager was walking along the roadway when he saw blood on the street. The man followed the trail of blood which led him to some bushes where he saw to his horror the headless body of a man, clad only in boxer shorts. The man’s hands were also severed from his body.

Police were called to the scene and the were unable to find any form of identification on the man’s body or close to scene where the body was found. Up to late yesterday the missing head and hands of the dead man had not been located.

The body was viewed by a district medical officer and ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre, St James. The discovery of the body resulted in Lopinot villagers gathering at the scene and looking on in disbelief as the body was removed by a hearse.

Northern Division police are asking persons whose relatives are missing to contact the Homicide Bureau in a bid to identify the headless body.