Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
The family of 74-year-old Sookhdaya Jury had been excitedly preparing to welcome her to Canada for Christmas. Unfortunately, they will now be travelling to Trinidad for her funeral after she was murdered in her home.
Investigators have not yet disclosed a motive for the gruesome murder of Jury, whose throat was slit. However, relatives said her handbag was missing and her cellphone was found in the restroom area of a bar on Caratal Road, Gasparillo, which is within the district where she lived.
Jury’s older brother, Mohan, had spent the night with her because she had planned to leave the country on Friday to visit her daughter in Canada and spend Christmas there.
Her other daughter, who lives on Caratal Road, video-called her around 1.42 pm. Jury was supposed to pick her up to go to the hairdresser. After Mohan and her friends left around 2 pm, she went upstairs to get ready to meet her daughter.
When her mother failed to arrive around 2.30 pm, she called Jury’s phone repeatedly but got no response. Concerned, she and her husband went to Jury’s home on San Fabien Road.
Upstairs, she found her lying on her back on a bed, gasping for breath. She was bleeding profusely from a wound to the left side of her neck. There was blood on the back of her head and on the bed.
By the time first responders arrived, she was already dead. A District Medical Officer viewed the body and ordered its removal to a funeral home, pending an autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre.
Police were informed that someone had called Jury’s nephew, informing him that her phone was found in the washroom area of D Colonnade Rest and Bar.
When Guardian Media visited her home yesterday, her brother Mohan was there, as well as a few neighbours.
Describing Jury as a very pleasant woman, her neighbours were shocked and saddened by the brutal way in which she was killed.
They noted that the area was relatively quiet and crime was not an issue in their neighbourhood.
Mohan explained that his sister had lived alone since her husband’s death about six years ago. Three of her five daughters live abroad.
Recalling the last moments with his sister, he said she was in good spirits and excited about leaving on Sunday.
Mohan, who lives in Plum Mitan, had brought fruits and other items for Jury to take for her daughter, and most of her bags were already packed.
He said, “She was going away this Friday and she was so joyful because I live Plum Mitan and I bring things to carry for her daughter, country thing. I spend the night with her. We sit down, we eat; we had breakfast. Yesterday I left to go home. When I each halfway on the road, they call me back; they say they now kill your sister.”
Mohan said her home was not ransacked and only her handbag and cellphone was found in the washroom area of a bar.
He believes the killer had been surveying the house and was waiting until she was alone. Despite arthritis in her knees and diabetes, she was otherwise healthy.
Still trying to come to terms with her brutal death, he said, “I don’t think it have justice for them kind of thing. I don’t know. How you will watch somebody just so and just kill them, man. Take a knife and slit their throat just so. What kind of people, what it is, animal? Animals have more sense than that. Animals will not even try to do that. Look what people come to. Seventy-four years, cannot even fight.”
Mohan said his sister was loved by her neighbours. “Everybody here loves her. With all the neighbours, she always a favourite here.”
Jury’s other daughters were expected to arrive in the country yesterday.
An autopsy was also expected to be done yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre.
Officers of the Homicide Bureau Region III and Southern Division are investigating.
