Scotiabank employee and mother of two Giselle Crystal Peters was looking forward to completing and moving into her new home with her family by Christmas.
But on Saturday, when she went to check in on her soon-to-be new house in Gasparillo, the 38-year-old woman was ambushed by bandits, stabbed in the neck and died. She had gone to the two-storey house at Reform Residential Phase II, a new housing development, to check the progress of the work. However, around 11.35 am, residents heard screaming and three masked men were seen running out of the structure. They entered a maroon-coloured vehicle, and one of the men was heard shouting, “Drive, drive, drive.”
A resident found Peters on the ground on the lower level with a knife in her neck. She died before the police and ambulance got to the scene.
At her home in Marabella, yesterday, relatives were in tears as they tried to come to terms with her murder.
They were hoping that the police investigation would reveal why Peters was killed.
“She did not even get time to enjoy the home that she worked so hard to build. Today, I don’t have a big sister. This crime situation is too out of control,” lamented one of Peters’ sisters.
Relatives said Peters worked at Scotiabank’s High Street, San Fernando branch and had been employed with the bank for more than ten years, during which time she received awards.
Her common-law husband Tyrell Roberts, who went to Tobago with friends last Thursday, said he was speaking with her on her cell phone when she was attacked. She told him she was about to leave the property. He briefly recalled, “Upon talking to her, I heard a voice in the background and then she said, she phone, she phone, and then the call cut. I kept calling back and it wasn’t answering,” he said.
Roberts said he grew worried and called his in-laws to check on her, but at that time no one had a vehicle.
While the in-laws were trying to make their way to Gasparillo, he said he got a call from a friend who works with the ambulance service that his wife had been killed. He said they had been building their home for the past 11 months.
Ayanna, one of Peters’ cousins, said she had been saving her money to complete her home. Noting that every year their family had a Christmas breakfast or brunch, she said, “Crystal was like, ‘I saving my money to finish my house. Everything keeping by me this year.’ That was her goal, to move in by Christmas and have our family breakfast or brunch by her.”
Lamenting the crime situation, she said, “Out of hand, Oh God, the girl was in her own place, minding her business and doing her own thing.” Despite her petite size, she believes that Peters would have tried to defend herself.
Ayanna added that Peters was like her sister. She said the mother of two worked hard and everything she did centred around her two daughters, ages six and nine. “She lived for her children, the best of everything she gave them. They never wanted for anything.” Describing her as kind-hearted, quiet and sweet, she lamented, “Crystal did not deserve this.”
Investigators said yesterday they were still trying to determine a motive. They said the suspects stole Peters’ bag, while her phone was left at the scene.
Officers of the Homicide Bureau Region III are investigating.