Police ranks in Berbice are on the hunt for a man after he hacked his ex-wife to death and escaped by plunging into the Canje River.
Dead is Mintie Karamchand, 40, of 19 Sheet Anchor, Berbice. The restaurant waitress – a mother of five – was killer at her home in the presence of one of her children.
The suspect, 47-year-old Goldburn December is said to have fled the scene. Police are on the hunt for him.
December and Karamchan separated eight years ago after a twenty-year relationship and he migrated to Suriname but was deported last month and returned to Sheet Anchor.
It is still unclear what triggered the brutal attack. However, the couple’s second child, Drucilla December, 21, said her mother returned home at 6:00h on Wednesday.
She related that even though her father had moved back home there was nothing going on between him and Karamchand. “He try touching her since he come back but she says that she have somebody and that she don’t want anything to do with him and I tell him not to touch ‘Mummy’, and since then he never try to touch her again,” the daughter related.
Meanwhile, she noted that shortly after her mother arrived home there was an argument between her and her mother. According to the young mother, she decided to move out with her baby but her mother said she will move and started to pack some of her belongings.
She said she went out of the house and then heard a loud voice coming from the lower flat and rushed to investigate. As she got close to the window she saw her mother covered in blood jumping out of the window. She said her father was at the time holding a chopper and she went between her parents in an attempt to protect her mother.
At the time she was holding her baby who is a few days old. “He tell me to move and I run outside and holla for help…”
She noted that December picked up a bench and went towards her mother but she did not see what happen after since she was trying to get assistance.
Eyewitnesses say December used the bench to hit the woman in her head. According to one neighbour, Vanessa Artiga, after inflicting the injuries, December left. Artiga said she was told of the incident and rushed over by which time other neighbours were flocking into the yard and Karamchamd was lying in a pool of blood. Shortly after she saw the suspect returning to the yard.
“She was breathing then the husband, which is Goldburn, he run back inside the yard and he say, ‘Oh you ent die yet, you hard fo dei.’ And he pick up a short piece of wood and give she like three or four hit on she head.”
Artiga said the police were contacted but they were advised to take the victim to the hospital and then go to the station and make a report.
A taxi was called and the badly injured woman was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Asked why December was not apprehended, Artiga said that there was not enough manpower to do so.
According to Drucilla, many persons were afraid of her father including her 23-year-old brother. She referred to him as a person who frequently consumed alcohol. This practice she said started before he left Guyana and was one of the reasons for the separation. She noted that after being deported, he had not been taking many drinks but recently returned to his old habit.
Meanwhile, residents say the man left with a rope and headed for the Canje River. According to one eyewitness, they were on a wharf and saw a man wearing only a trouser.
The man swam the river and used a tree to climb onto shore in the vicinity of the National Psychiatric Hospital. At the time he was not carrying anything in his hands.
Police arrived on the scene and, up to press time, were still searching for the suspect. (Andrew Carmichael)
