Granny among 2 women murdered

RELATIVES of 55-year-old grandmother of six , Moonia Geesiawan, who went missing after leaving her workplace on Tuesday, located her body after seeing flocks of corbeaux (vultures) gathered at a specific area in the forests off Agostini Village, Rio Claro, yesterday morning. Police investigating the gruesome murder of Geesiawan told Newsday they believe her killer/s threw the carcass of a dead dog near her body to lead persons into thinking that the stench of rotting flesh came from the dead animal thus preventing Geesiawan’s body from being discovered. Police believe the woman was abducted, raped, strangled and her body partially burnt. Geesiawan’s body was discovered 24 hours after nursing assistant Sharda Deane, 41, of Cedar Hill Estate Road, Princes Town, was fatally stabbed by a close male relative at their home following an argument she had with the relative over his  alcohol problem. Southern Division Homicide detectives were up to late yesterday questioning a 54-year-old customs clerk of Princes Town in connection with Deane’s murder. Four men, all of Agostini Village, Rio Claro, were also being questioned in the connection with Geesiawan’s murder.

In the Deane killing, police sources said around 6.30 pm on Thursday, the suspect was cutting onions in the kitchen when Deane approached him and started arguing about his drinking habit. The argument turned deadly when, police said, the man plunged a knife into the left side of the woman’s chest. Deane was rushed to the Princes Town Hospital by relatives, but was pronounced dead on arrival. Up to late yesterday, police were making arrangements to have an autopsy carried out on Deane’s body at the Forensic Sciences Centre, Federation Park, St James. Police sources told Newsday the suspect, a father of four,  was held shortly after the murder. Police sources told Newsday, once an autopsy was carried out on Deane’s body, the report and case file would be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Geoffrey Henderson, who would then decide on what (if any) charges would be laid against the suspect. In the other murder, around 10 am yesterday, Geesiawan’s badly decomposed body was discovered by her 28-year-old son, Chris, and his friend Anthony Joseph, 32, in a forested area about 300 feet off the main road at Agostini Village, Rio Claro.

Struggling to hold back tears,  Chris Geesiawan was able to identify his mother’s body by a gold capped tooth at the front of her mouth. The woman’s body was discovered lying on its back under a pile of burnt bamboo with a rope tied around the neck. District Medical Officer Dr Kamaluddin Amin viewed the body and ordered it removed to the Forensic Sciences Centre where an autopsy will be done on Monday. Joseph told Newsday that his friend’s mother worked with an URP gang in Rio Claro and had finished work around midday on Tuesday. She decided to go to Agostini Village to find a welder to burglar-proof the windows of her home. Joseph said he learnt that Geesiawan had gone to a welder who had referred her to other people who would do the job.That was the last time she was seen alive. A large crowd of villagers gathered at the side of the main road while police and the DMO examined the corpse. Southern Division Homicide Bureau detectives are continuing investigations into both murders.