SASCHA WIL­SON

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

There was heart­break and out­rage from the rel­a­tives of two sib­lings slaugh­tered on Wednes­day night in New Grant, as well as from the fam­i­ly of the man sus­pect­ed of com­mit­ting the grue­some acts.

Six­teen-year-old Shenelle Singh and broth­er Ke­ston, 21, were hacked to death in New Grant. The mur­ders of the sib­lings were among sev­en be­tween Wednes­day and yes­ter­day, with two of the in­ci­dents in­volv­ing mul­ti­ple vic­tims.

Shenelle, a Form Four Ma­yaro Sec­ondary stu­dent, left her home in Ma­yaro on Sat­ur­day to pur­chase school shoes but de­cid­ed to spend a few days with her broth­er at his home.

Ke­ston had been rent­ing at Naggee Av­enue, the sus­pect’s home­town, for over a year. The sib­lings knew the sus­pect and were lim­ing at his home on Wednes­day. Some­time be­fore 7 pm, how­ev­er, the sus­pect at­tacked the sib­lings with a cut­lass. Res­i­dents be­lieve the at­tack was sud­den and the sib­lings had no chance to de­fend them­selves.

Ke­ston, a se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer, was found dead on a couch in the gallery, bleed­ing from wounds to his neck and feet. Res­i­dents be­lieve Shenelle jumped over the ban­nis­ter but did not get far. She was found dead on the ground about ten feet away with mul­ti­ple chop wounds to her face and head.

Po­lice were try­ing to de­ter­mine a mo­tive for the dead­ly at­tack, but the sus­pect’s rel­a­tives claimed he al­leged­ly con­fessed to sex­u­al­ly as­sault­ing Shenelle be­fore killing the sib­lings.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed yes­ter­day, res­i­dents and the sus­pect’s rel­a­tives were out­raged over the killings. They said they had a sleep­less night as the sus­pect kept roam­ing the area. Short­ly be­fore 8 am yes­ter­day, they con­tact­ed the po­lice and he was ar­rest­ed a few hous­es away from where the in­ci­dent oc­curred.

In Ma­yaro, the sib­lings’ grand­moth­er, 63-year-old Mar­garet Rag­ibir, was vis­i­bly shak­en. She said the sib­lings’ moth­er was too dis­traught to speak and the fam­i­ly was in an­guish.

“To­day they leave us in pain. To­day we are in pain. I just put it to God in prayer that vengeance don’t be­long to me, it be­longs to God. I love them very much and to­day I have to mourn their death,” Rag­bir said.

De­scrib­ing the sib­lings as beau­ti­ful and lov­ing chil­dren, she said they shared a close bond. She said Ke­ston was al­ways laugh­ing and Shenelle al­ways smil­ing. Their mur­ders, Rag­bir lament­ed, were a re­flec­tion of a love­less so­ci­ety.

“When some­body do some­thing like that they re­al­ly don’t love no­body ... This time no­body loves no­body in this time be­cause look how many mur­ders tak­ing place,” she wept.

The grand­moth­er said Shenelle, who would have cel­e­brat­ed her 17th birth­day in No­vem­ber, want­ed to be a nurse.

Back in New Grant, res­i­dent Marisa Cop­per said she was dis­turbed and an­gry by the mur­ders. Coop­er is al­so re­lat­ed to the sus­pect, who she ac­cused of be­ing an evil and vi­o­lent man who was re­leased from prison last year.

“I am telling you ... me and he is fam­i­ly, he is a men­ace to so­ci­ety. These are the things he is do (sic). This is his tem­pera­ment and he had no right to kill them in­no­cent. He kill these chil­dren wil­ful­ly,” Coop­er al­leged.

She called on the po­lice to en­sure the sus­pect, “stays in jail.”

Coop­er said res­i­dents found Shenelle’s body and called the po­lice.

Coop­er called on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to ad­dress the coun­try on the crime sit­u­a­tion.

“Peo­ple in pain. Peo­ple chil­dren dy­ing. Peo­ple chil­dren cry­ing ... You need to face your peo­ple and say some­thing to your peo­ple.”

The 33-year-old sus­pect, who po­lice said was held for steal­ing cop­per ca­bles, as­sault and mar­i­jua­na pos­ses­sion, re­mained in cus­tody last evening.