Handyman caught driving murdered woman’s car

A day after Carmen Ramjattan was found bludgeoned to death, a 35-year-old man was arrested after he was caught driving her stolen car. Car Search staff found the man driving Ramjattan’s gold-coloured Nissan Almera on an agricultural road off the M2 Ring Road, Debe, around 6.15 pm on Thursday.

Police said the man, from Rambert Village, La Romaine, was known to Ramjattan and had done odd jobs at her Sunkist Drive home. Ramjattan’s battered body was discovered around 11 pm on Wednesday by her son, Dennis Ramjattan, and San Fernando CID officers after calls to her phones and visits to her Phillipine home went unanswered.

The woman’s son told the T&T Guardian that on Wednesday evening when a neighbour checked his mother’s house and reported her lights were off, her car was missing and the gate wide open, he immediately left his Diego Martin house to look for her. He said they found the house locked, with no signs of forced entry, leading investigators to believe she was killed by someone she knew.

Contacted yesterday, Ramjattan said he had been told an arrest had been made, but said he was unaware there was someone who did work for his mother.

An autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre in St James on Thursday by pathologist Dr Eastlyn Mac Donald Borris confirmed Ramjattan, 70, was severely beaten. The findings showed she died of cranio-cerebral injuries and haemorrhaging caused by blunt trauma to the head and a fractured cervical spine.

Earlier, Southern Division Task Force police found a Nissan Bluebird Sylphy abandoned on Dumfries Road, Hermitage Village, which they believe was used to transport the headless body of ex-convict Learie Ceballo. Blood was found in the back seat of the car and police have sent it to the Forensic Science Centre for DNA testing.

Ceballo, of Poui Lane, Coconut Drive, San Fernando, was murdered on Thursday morning and his head put on display on a concrete lawn table outside the Stepperz Restaurant and Bar at Dumfries Road, Rambert Village. Four hours later, police found the rest of his body on a Hermitage Village agricultural road. It was tied up with industrial straps and partially wrapped in a sheet.

Police believe the murder may have been drug-related and are exploring the possibility that a “hit” on Ceballo may have been ordered from inside prison. Ceballo was released from prison on February 15. It was the fourth killing of the week in the Southern Division. Police sergeant Hayden Manwaring was shot in the stomach as he and PC Nicholas Phillip tried to arrest four robbery suspects on Tuesday.

Since then, police have beefed up security in the division, with frequent patrols by the National Security helicopter and roadblocks in several hotspot areas. Yesterday, senior police held a meeting with officers from the various stations before embarking on a widespread operation throughout San Fernando.