Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Just three years short of cel­e­brat­ing his 100th birth­day, a Mara­bel­la man in­volved in a love tri­an­gle with a 48-year-old woman died af­ter he was beat­en by the woman's ex-boyfriend. Josi­ah Hud­son Downes, 97, of Cen­teno Street, Mara­bel­la, died weeks af­ter he was at­tacked at the woman's home in Rousil­lac.

Ini­tial­ly, po­lice be­lieved he died of nat­ur­al caus­es. How­ev­er, an au­top­sy con­duct­ed on his body by Dr Hu­bert Dais­ley at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre on Thurs­day re­vealed that Downes died as a re­sult of blunt force trau­ma to the chest and ab­domen and pul­monary em­bolism. Up to mid­day yes­ter­day, homi­cide of­fi­cers were search­ing for a 51-year-old sus­pect of Pe­nal Rock Road. In­ves­ti­ga­tors said around 9.30 pm on Ju­ly 15, Downes went to vis­it the woman at her home when her ex-boyfriend al­so vis­it­ed.

Po­lice said an ar­gu­ment broke out be­tween Downes and the sus­pect who is be­lieved to have dealt him sev­er­al blows about the body. Five days lat­er, Downes com­plained about pains to his body. He was tak­en to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where he was ward­ed for 11 days. Po­lice said the woman con­tin­ued to care for Downes and on Ju­ly 31, she went to his home and found him ly­ing naked on the floor of his bed­room. He was again tak­en to the hos­pi­tal where he died around 6 am on Wednes­day.

Sev­er­al of Downes' neigh­bours yes­ter­day ex­pressed shock at his death. One man said Downes, de­spite his age, would cook and shop for him­self. He said Downes lived alone. Most of his rel­a­tives mi­grat­ed to Eng­land. "Mr Downes was al­ways old but he used to walk the road and go to the mar­ket. "He did every­thing for him­self but he al­so paid a care­tak­er to help him," the neigh­bour added.

An­oth­er woman, who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty, said Downes was a pri­vate per­son and did not min­gle. The Rousil­lac woman was un­avail­able for com­ment yes­ter­day. When the Guardian vis­it­ed her home, one of her ten­ants said Downes was a reg­u­lar vis­i­tor. Po­lice said they would con­tin­ue search­ing for the sus­pect. Cor­po­ral Seep­er­sad and Pus­tam of the San Fer­nan­do Homi­cide Bu­reau are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.