Police officers have launched an investigation into the suspicious death of a mentally ill resident of a home for the elderly in Arima after she suffered severe burns and was only taken for treatment five days after the incident.
Investigators said they have since uncovered a house of horror where over 10 residents, including mentally-ill people, were living in squalid conditions.
Police were called in by hospital authorities after Margaret Thomas was admitted to the Arima District Hospital on February 3.
Thomas, a mental out-patient, was registered under a false name and relatives only found out about her death a day after she died.
An autopsy revealed that Thomas died from sepsis and burns.
Tissue samples were also taken for further forensic histology testing.
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body’s response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs.
Police sources disclosed to the Guardian Media that preliminary investigations pointed to foul play. It is suspected that Thomas seemed to have been placed in a seated position and doused with a flammable liquid and lit on fire, investigators said.
Photographs of Thomas’ body showed that she was burnt to the face, arms, legs, inner thighs and the soles of the feet.
Guardian Media understands that a team of police officers, including Crime Scene Investigators, visited the home where they questioned the owner.
Inside the home, investigators found dilapidated and worn out furniture, unsanitary mattresses, unsanitary toilets and bathroom. The kitchen area was also without proper cupboards and also in an unsanitary condition.
Guardian Media understands that the owner of the home accepted social grant cheques from the Ministry of Social Development as monthly payments that are disbursed to the respective residents at the home. There are currently over 10 residents.
Guardian Media was told that the home was allegedly ordered closed on three occasions. It is suspected that every time the home was closed down it was relocated to another location.
Thomas was laid to rest on Tuesday following a funeral service in Arima.
Her relatives are now calling for a thorough investigation and justice for Thomas.
“We are very distraught over this entire situation. Margaret had no place for a home as her own and we could not take care of her that’s why we placed her in this home hoping that she would have been well taken care of but instead, she died an inhumane death which was not deserving. Her children are not taking this well either,” one of Thomas’ relatives said.
Thomas, 47, was the mother of two children ages 15 and 12. Thomas’ mother died when she was just nine-years-old.
Thomas, over the years up until her death, according to relatives, has been an out-patient of the St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital.
Speaking with the Guardian Media yesterday, a close female relative said the owner of the home told them on February 9 that Thomas had died at the hospital on February 8.
“We were also told that she got burnt when a stove had exploded when she was going to do some baking. But what we found strange was that Margaret could not have done anything on her own really,” the relative said.
More info: In November 2018, in a Joint Select Committee on Social Development and Public Administration, it was disclosed that six cases in homes were reported to police to investigate criminal intent, three homes have been closed, 30 others said to be in “extreme conditions of non-compliance” and out of 217 such homes registered with the Health Ministry, only one is licensed.
It also disclosed that out of the unlicensed homes, nine receive State funding.