Cunupia murder/suicide

Story taken from our C R I M E section.

The Cunupia man who strangled his wife on Friday and then committed suicide by drinking gramoxone has been described by his colleagues at Nestle (Trinidad) as a cool person, who hardly mingled or spoke openly about his problems.

Stephen Salazar was a machine operator at Nestle and was last seen by his colleagues on Thursday. He took last Friday off, and murdered his wife Indra Radaye Rampersad Salazar.

No one knew he had purchased two bottles of gramoxone and had planned to kill his wife of 19 years and then commit suicide.

Relatives said yesterday Salazar never displayed any hostile behaviour on Friday. He called his wife on her cellphone while she was visiting relatives and asked her to return home so they could have lunch together.

Unknown to Salazar, his wife had confided in a female relative she feared for her life and suspected her husband was spiking her drinks with poison.

She was advised to leave their house at Dyette Trace, Cunupia, but decided to stay for the sake of her two children Fabien ,16, and Brandon, 17.

The accountant is believed to have been strangled around 4 pm.

Her husband then drank gramoxone and died at about 7 pm at the Chaguanas Health Centre.

Newsday reported yesterday that Salazar had accused his wife of being unfaithful to him and was poisoning her.

An autospy on Indra Radaye Rampersad Salazar will be carried out tomorrow. Homicide Bureau officers are investigating.