Instead, relatives had to identify his body at the Forensic Science Centre after suffering a brutal hacking death on Monday.
Reports stated that Maraj was outside his friend Taramatee Ramsingh’s home at St John’s Branch Trace, Avocat Village, cutting her grass.
Around 5 pm, one of Ramsingh’s neighbours complained that the brush cutter was pitching stones.
An argument broke out, and a 41-year-old man reportedly picked up a cutlass and chopped Maraj several times on his head and neck. Ramsingh heard the commotion and ran outside, and the suspect chopped her on her head and hands. Maraj died at the scene while relatives took Ramsingh to the Siparia District Health Facility.
South Western Division Police and detectives from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations: Region Three responded, but the suspect had already fled through some bushes.
He remained in hiding late yesterday.
Maraj’s brother Devindranath said the family was yet to understand what happened but has to know.
He said Maraj had a 13-year-old daughter and was supposed to begin his vacation yesterday.
“It is all about what we are hearing, but at the end of the day, who was here could actually say. I mean the girl, I heard, she was in the incident. She is in the hospital and is the only one I think could come out in the open and tell the honest truth. We are only assuming,” Devindranath said.
Ramsingh’s husband, Eugene Baptiste, was not at home when the incident happened. Baptiste said by the time he reached home, Ramsingh was already at the San Fernando General Hospital.
However, after two surgeries, she is resting well. Both Baptiste and the suspect’s wife told Guardian Media there were numerous arguments between both houses for years.
The suspect’s wife said Maraj also threw stones on the house to provoke her husband.
When the suspect approached and asked him to stop, he began to shove the brush cutter blade towards the suspect.
“All of this that happened was just an accident. They were provoking my husband, telling him all kinds of things, making the stone hit the house and pelting stones.
The man was cutting the lawn and letting the stone hit the house. Why would you do that? Children are living here. My husband told the guy to be careful; you cannot be making stones hit other people’s houses. The man was teasing him and provoking him. What will happen? You will get vex,” the wife said.
When the chopping took place, she was inside her house.
By the time she came out, Maraj was already bleeding on the ground. She admitted that her husband was wrong, but she insisted it was an accident.
