Police have launched a manhunt for the killer of a 53-year-old mother of two. The suspect also brutally chopped the woman’s 21-year-old daughter, who remains hospitalised in critical condition.
Despite searches by police at a house in Coalmine, Sangre Grande, the suspect was on the run up to late yesterday.
Police said around 6.50 pm on Monday, Tricia Badaloo was at home in the bathroom when she was attacked and chopped several times by the man, who is known to her 21-year-old daughter Taylor Benson and the family.
The man then turned his attention to her daughter and began chopping her too.
Police said Badaloo managed to run behind the attacker and stood in front of the door to prevent Benson from being further attacked. The daughter managed to escape after receiving several chops and ran out of the house onto the road screaming for help before she eventually fell to the ground. She was able to give the name of the suspect to police before she collapsed and was rushed to the Sangre Grande Hospital.
Badaloo, however, was hacked to death inside the house.
Relatives told Guardian Media that the 21-year-old’s hand was reportedly severed in addition to several chops about her body. She underwent emergency surgery and was said to be in critical condition fighting for her life at the hospital.
Relatives said the suspect, who lived with his relative at Coalmine, Sangre Grande, was recently released from prison after serving a jail term for assaulting the 21-year-old victim.
Police said the wanted man was captured on CCTV footage leaving the Badaloos’ house after committing the crime. Investigators are using this to assist with their probe.
Relatives of Benson said she once had a relationship with the suspect, which they claimed turned violent and resulted in her suffering black eyes and bruises about her body. They claimed it escalated to the point where Benson had to be hospitalised after she was beaten to a bloody pulp.
Police later intervened and relatives said this is what led to the suspect being jailed for four years. However, relatives said the suspect was released without the Badaloos knowing and the suspect planned his attack on the mother and daughter.