Shar­lene Ram­per­sad

Min­utes af­ter res­i­dents of Wal­cott Lane, En­ter­prise, found the bat­tered, nude body of one of their neigh­bours in a track yes­ter­day, they saw an­oth­er neigh­bour eat­ing a piece of bake and pump­kin while try­ing to wash blood off his clothes.

The res­i­dents cor­nered the man and al­though he put up a strug­gle, he was even­tu­al­ly sub­dued and hand­ed over to the po­lice. The dead body was iden­ti­fied as that of Pamela Bal­go­b­in, 37.Bal­go­b­in and the sus­pect, now in po­lice cus­tody, grew up in Wal­cott Lane to­geth­er.

When the T&T Guardian vis­it­ed the scene yes­ter­day, Bal­go­b­in's sib­lings, Gee­ta Ra­goo­bar, 56, and Vashti Ramkissoon, ex­pressed shock over their younger sis­ter's death. Bal­go­b­in had four chil­dren, ages 21, 19, 17 and 15. She was al­so the grand­moth­er of a four-year-old boy.

Ra­goo­bar said she was told her sis­ter was re­turn­ing home when a man snatched mon­ey from her hand and she con­front­ed him.

"Some­one saw it and they said he snatched her mon­ey from her hand and she be­gan ar­gu­ing with him to get it back," she said.

"Then a lit­tle while af­ter a next neigh­bour was pass­ing through the track and saw a body...he came and told my nephew and niece but when they got there they re­alised it was her." Bal­go­b­in's head and face were bashed in and her throat had been slit.Her tat­tered tiger-striped pants and top were strewn next to her body.

"My niece say she couldn't even make out that it was her, her en­tire face was gone. Is on­ly when she watched the body good, then she re­alised and she run home to get a sheet to cov­er her body."She said her sis­ter's al­leged at­tack­er was seen about 30 feet away from her body, wash­ing blood off his cloth­ing.

"They no­ticed him by the pipe in the sa­van­nah wash­ing blood off his clothes. When they went up to him he was eat­ing the bake and pump­kin and laugh­ing and talk­ing. They asked him what hap­pened and he said he didn't do any­thing, but the fel­las hold him and tell him he not leav­ing till the po­lice come."

Of­fi­cers of the Ch­agua­nas Po­lice Sta­tion re­spond­ed to the scene and took the man in­to cus­tody. Crime Scene Unit in­ves­ti­ga­tors re­moved a piece of wood and the base of a blender from the scene yes­ter­day. Bal­go­b­in lived in a small wood­en house op­po­site Ramkissoon. She re­called see­ing her sis­ter around 11 pm on Mon­day.

"I was watch­ing the US elec­tions and she came for some­thing to eat. I saw my son give her a sand­wich and a cup of tea and she left," Ramkissoon said.

"She left and went home...that was the last I saw of her." She de­scribed her sis­ter as cool and qui­et.

"She nev­er in­ter­fere with any­one, if you ask her to do any­thing for you she would do it will­ing­ly."

One of Bal­go­b­in's sons, Justin, 19, said he last saw his moth­er on Mon­day.

"She came up by us, eat and lime and then told me she was go­ing by my sis­ter to see her grand­child," Justin said.He said the fam­i­ly of the man held for the in­ci­dent and his fam­i­ly got along well and he had no idea why the man would want to harm his moth­er.

"All of them grew up to­geth­er, I don't know what hap­pen to him that he do those things, my moth­er didn't de­serve that. I am an­gry and hurt­ing right now."

Her killing has tak­en the mur­der tal­ly to 398 for the year.