Grandmother Chanday “Meila” Lalloo would not have had the strength to fight off the intruder who brutally stabbed her to death at her Gasparillo home.
The 64-year-old stroke victim. who walked with a stick used her arms to try to shield her body from the stabs, police said.
There were stab wounds to her upper body, including her arms, neck, chest and face.
Police have not ruled out robbery as a black plastic bag in which she kept her money and Play Whe tickets missing.
Lalloo’s body was discovered by her relatives around 7.30 am yesterday in a bedroom at her King Street home.
Lalloo, a recipient of a government disability grant, was last seen returning to her home around 6 pm on Saturday from a nearby Play Whe booth.
Her nephew Davin Sookoo said Lalloo would sometimes make four trips a day to the Play Whe booth to play a mark for herself and two brothers.
Lalloo lived alone but her relatives lived in the same street.
Sookoo said she would usually keep her front door locked.
He said, “This morning my mother was calling her to get something from her. She was not getting any response on the phone so she decided to come down and ask she for it. She knocked on the (Lalloo) door and she was calling she and calling she, but she wasn’t getting through.”
Sookoo said his mother returned home and asked his two brothers to check on their aunt.
He explained that Lalloo’s house was not completely sealed off to the roof so his brothers climbed up and peeped inside the house.
“When they climb up over the door through the lil piece in the door they could see she stick not the ground. They get frighten because they thought she fall down so they decide to pry open the door with something,” he said..
Sookoo said he helped them to force the door open.
“We check the bathroom to see if she fall down there, she was not there. We check the main bedroom, she was not there so we decide to check the other room. By the time we move the curtains we see she on the ground with a set of blood all over she,” he recalled.
Sookoo said he thought she fell and hit her face. No one touched her because they wanted to first contact the police.
He went to the Gasparillo Police Station to make the report and when he returned his relatives told him Lalloo was stabbed multiple times.
Describing his aunt as a very humble person, Sookoo said everyone was in a state of disbelief.
He said, “We were trying to understand who would want to do she something like that because she just to she self alone, she don’t really meddle with nobody.”
He believe she may have been followed home and attacked as she entered the house.
“She will not open the door for a stranger. She will say ’’who it is’ and go by front window (to see who it is first).”
He said her cellphone was found by the pipe in the yard.
Lalloo’s front door key was not found.
Wiping away tears, Lalloo’s sister Sheila Balliram said she never thought crime would reach their doorstep.
She said she spoke to her sister about putting a stop to people walking though her unfenced yard, but Lalloo dismissed her.
“She say they not bothering me, they just passing though,” she said.
Balliram said her sister’s murder was also a shock to the neighbourhood as the area was relatively quiet.
Even though her sister lived alone, she said relatives and neighbours would look out for her.
Lalloo had two children, one died a few years ago and her daughter lives abroad.
She also had four grandchildren.
An autopsy is expected to be performed today at the Forensic Science Centre.
Investigators from the Gasparillo Police and Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region 3 are investigating.
