Two men were today charged and remanded to prison for the murder of 45-year-old Edith Reuben, a housewife of Yarrowkabra, Soesdyke-Linden Highway whose body was on February 7 found hanging from a mango tree in her yard.
Dianand Lakhan, 41, and Aubrey Williams, 36, both of Yarrowkabra, appeared before Magistrate Judy Latchman at the Diamond/Golden Grove Magistrate’s Court where they were not required to plead to the capital offence of murder.
They were both remanded to prison until March 3, 2022.
It was reported that Reuben lived with her reputed husband who told Police that they, along with several neighbours, were consuming alcohol on February 6, 2022. However, after some time had elapsed, the others left for their respective residences, except for a male friend.
The man said that his wife stayed on her verandah consuming alcohol while he and the other man retired to bed.
At about 04:00h the next morning, he reportedly told investigators that the male guest woke him to tell him that he was leaving their home. After acknowledging, the woman’s husband said he went back to sleep.
Two hours after, he said he awoke and made the gruesome discovery of his reputed wife’s motionless body hanging from a mango tree in the yard.
The body was taken down and escorted to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre where the woman was pronounced dead.
A statement from the Police’s headquarters stated that because of the positioning of the woman’s body, it was suggested that she was murdered, and her body was placed at the scene.
The post-mortem conducted on the body by Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh confirmed the woman died because of asphyxiation due to hanging compounded by blunt trauma to the head.
Following the revelation of the post-mortem examination, the woman’s husband and the alleged male visitor were arrested and remain in Police custody. It was also reported that the men confessed to killing the woman.
Regional Commander, Senior Superintendent Mahendra Siwnarine stated that based on the suspects’ confession, the woman’s husband went outside and found her in a “compromising” position with the male visitor. As such, he struck her to her head using a piece of wood.
This caused Reuben to become unconscious, and the men thought she was dead. They both then joined forces by picking the woman up and placing her to hang from the mango tree to make it look as though she committed suicide.
This caused her to suffocate and later lose her life. The husband then fabricated the story to tell the Police, that he found his wife hanging from the tree.
