Mom was raped, strangled with own dress

MOM DEAD IN HOUSE

On Monday evening, a woman who decided to pay her mother a visit, found the 59-year-old woman’s nude body inside her (the victim) Valencia shack. The victim, Christiana Lewis, a mother of three, lived alone. Her wooden house was ransacked. An autopsy done yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre by Pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov revealed that Lewis was raped and strangled.

The killer used the woman’s own dress as a weapon as it was found wrapped around her neck.

The autopsy determined that Lewis, who was last seen alive on Saturday, was attacked and killed on Sunday. No arrest has been made in this case.

MURDERED WHILE LIMING

In an unrelated incident, patrons at a bar off Sunshine Avenue in San Juan, had to duck and run when gunmen opened fire shortly after midnight yesterday. When the smoke cleared, four limers lay on the ground, bleeding from gunshot wounds. One of them, 20-year-old Lawrence Kareem Sydney of Bagatelle Extension, Sunshine Avenue, San Juan was later pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Sydney was liming at the bar when gunmen opened fire. His relatives yesterday said that country was at a stage where people face being murdered even while liming and having fun.

Speaking at the Forensic Science Centre, they said Sydney was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“He liked to make people laugh. He was loving, humble and helpful. He never did anything to anyone. The most he would do is drink and play cards,” said a relative who asked not to be identified.

At the bar, an eyewitness told Newsday that one moment he was drinking a beer and then without warning, shots rang out. “It was ‘bow, bow, bow, bow...’ rapid gunfire and we all scattered. I not lying to tell you that I ran for cover.

People fell to the ground playing dead as the gunshots continued,” the patron said. An autopsy concluded that Sydney had been shot six times. The other injured men remain warded.

BANDIT KILLED

Yesterday, Vishnu Dowlath - identified by police as a bandit - was shot and killed when he was confronted by a security guard at a casino in Chaguanas.

According to reports, Dowlath and another man announced a hold-up at the casino at Tobago Road in Chaguanas at about 3 pm.

When the armed security challenged both bandits, there was an exchange of gunfire and Dowlath slumped to the ground. No one else was injured. His accomplice managed to flee the scene.

Dowlath who hailed from Enterprise in Chaguanas was later pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy yesterday revealed he was shot three times in the chest. The guard, who works for a security company and is licensed to carry a firearm, later gave a statement to the police.

WHO IS THE BAD MAN HERE?

In the final act of crime and mayhem (up to press time), a man entered a yard in Malabar yesterday and asked people who were liming, “who is the bad man here?” He then pulled out a gun from his pants pocked and opened fire.

Two people, a 15-year-old boy and a 21-year-old woman, were shot.

They were taken to hospital and police last night refused to give their names saying they remain warded under police guard since the gunman has not yet been held.

The victims were liming in a yard at Daniel Trace at about 3.50 pm, when the gunman approached.

The teen was shot in the left hand while the woman was shot in the neck.

Detective Cpl Ramdeen of the Malabar police station is leading investigations