Mom of 4 stabbed to death

A COUVA mother of four was fatally stabbed with a penknife on Saturday night, while she stood near the doorstep to her home. Moments after the fatal stabbing of Rhonda Zamora Backhorie, 33, a relative surrendered to Couva police, unaware that she had died at hospital. The stabbing occurred in the presence of Backhorie’s children.

The Couva woman was one of three persons murdered in separate incidents in the country over the weekend, which has pushed the overall murder rate for the year to 51. The incident, which has left relatives and friends of the dead woman, in a state of shock, occurred at Sanford Street, California around 8.30 pm, when according to Backhorie’s brother Krishen Ragoonanan, he had just returned home with the Coast Guard officer and a neighbour. “We went to Enterprise, for a stove and then came home. Rhonda was watching TV and he (the suspect) said he wanted to talk to her. She went outside with him on the step and I went to eat in the kitchen. Five minutes later, I hear her calling out and when I went outside, I saw the man had Rhonda’s neck in a lock and I see she was bleeding from her chest”, Ragoonanan told Newsday.

Ragoonanan said that as he pushed the suspect away from his sister, the man plunged a knife into his (Ragoonanan’s) stomach. “I push him off and I carry her down by the neighbour’s house and she passed out”, Ragoonanan said as his eyes welled with tears. Ragoonanan added that he kept pressure on the wound, while he called out to the neighbour for help. The neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, told Newsday they had  a few drinks while delivering the stove. “We just reach home and I fall asleep for about five minutes when I heard a knock on the door.” He said when paramedics arrived, they were reluctant to take Backhorie to hospital, explaining that they had to wait until the police arrived. However after arguing with the residents, the bleeding woman was taken to the Couva District Hospital where she was treated.

Backhorie was transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital where emergency surgery was expected to be performed. However, she died in the ambulance while on the way to the hospital. A neighbour claimed that Rhonda and the relative were seen in a violent confrontation moments before the stabbing. “He kicked one of Rhonda’s daughters and Rhonda put the child on the chair to sit down. He then went to the child and banged her head on a wall. That was when Rhonda push him away and is then he locked her neck and stab her”, the neighbour said. However the neighbour’s version was denied by her brother, Ragoonanan who said that there was no vexation or anything. “Everything was normal and she never expected that,” Ragoonanan said. 

Backhorie’s four children — Stephanie, 15; Shandel, 10; Deron and Renee are now staying with their aunt in Mc Bean Village, Couva. Yesterday members of the Coast Guard visited the home and expressed condolences to the bereaved family. Up to late yesterday, the relative was being questioned by police investigators. A bloodstained penknife has been seized by police. At the time of the stabbing incident, Backhorie was renovating her home which she shared with her four children and husband Winston to whom she had been married for eight years. An autopsy is expected to be carried out today at the Forensic Sciences Centre. Couva police are continuing investigations.