Gardener stabbed to death at Tableland

MYSTERY surrounds the death of a 23-year-old man of Tableland on Friday night.  Harilal Persad of Mairio Third Avenue, Robert Village, was killed shortly after leaving his girlfriend’s home around 9.30 pm. But neither police nor the man’s parents could shed any light on how Persad’s body ended up along Mohar Trace close to his home with stab wounds to the chest.
 
Persad was killed, police said, after he was abducted just mere metres from his girlfriend’s home on Tableland Road. Homicide detectives were late yesterday trying to piece together information to determine a motive, but nothing was forthcoming. Zena Persad, the victim’s mother, said her son was a gardener and she last saw him Friday afternoon when he visited her in the Princes Town market where she sells vegetables. Persad, Zena said, told her he was travelling to San Fernando to meet his girlfriend Melini. Melini, she added, lives about a quarter of a mile from the Persads.

“I understand they both travelled back home. My son bathed and changed in the evening and said he going by his girlfriend,” Zena told Sunday Newsday. That was the last time his mother, Persad’s three sisters and father, Mahadeo Persad, saw him. Zena said she was informed that Persad left Melini’s home around 9 pm and began walking along the Tableland Road towards home. “His girlfriend told me she stood outside and watched him until she could not see him again,” Zena said. Police said a passerby stumbled on Persad’s body along the trace. It bore three stab wounds. Insp George of the San Fernando Homicide Division is spearheading investigations.