RHON­DOR DOWLAT

Se­nior Re­porter

rhon­dor.dowlat@guardian.co.tt

A Venezue­lan man is cur­rent­ly as­sist­ing po­lice in their in­ves­ti­ga­tions sur­round­ing the death of his 55-year-old com­mon-law wife.

Busi­ness­woman Pauline Ros­ales, al­so known as Gret­ta, was al­leged­ly beat­en to death on Tues­day.

Po­lice said Ros­ales lived with the sus­pect at her busi­ness place, At­las Bar, lo­cat­ed on Todd’s Road, Ch­agua­nas, op­po­site the recre­ation ground.

Po­lice said Ros­ales and her com­mon-law hus­band had an ar­gu­ment which es­ca­lat­ed in­to an al­leged fight, where Ros­ales was bad­ly beat­en.

The two were even­tu­al­ly tak­en to the Ch­agua­nas Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty’s Ac­ci­dent and Emer­gency De­part­ment at Ram­saran Street, where Ros­ales was treat­ed and trans­ferred to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope, for ad­di­tion­al emer­gency treat­ment. She, how­ev­er, suc­cumbed to her in­juries about 10 am on Wednes­day.

Po­lice said the sus­pect, who al­so sus­tained in­juries, was treat­ed at the Ch­agua­nas Health Fa­cil­i­ty. Up­on be­ing dis­charged, he was tak­en in­to po­lice cus­tody.

An au­top­sy has been or­dered at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James to de­ter­mine the ac­tu­al cause of death.

Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed Ros­ales’ moth­er, Cather­ine, at her Todd’s Sta­tion Road home yes­ter­day, where fam­i­ly mem­bers were prepar­ing for the wake.

Cather­ine said her daugh­ter was well known in the area and will be re­mem­bered her for her cook­ing and love for fam­i­ly.

“She had one daugh­ter and five grand­chil­dren. She loved to cook and Christ­mas was all about the cook­ing and fam­i­ly,” Cather­ine said.

“She was very kind and lov­ing and I nev­er heard any­thing about she be­ing abused be­fore. First time. I knew the hus­band, too, and I know him to bar-b-que for her. I don’t know him to be a crim­i­nal but I just want jus­tice,” she added.

Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Ryan Ram­per­sad al­so mourned the death of Ros­ales. “The trag­ic pass­ing of Gret­ta has thrown the en­tire com­mu­ni­ty in­to a deep sense of grief and sad­ness. She was a house­hold name in our com­mu­ni­ty. Gret­ta was a very hard-work­ing woman. She al­ways wore a beau­ti­ful smile on her face.

“Gret­ta came from a well-known fam­i­ly who would host that East­er sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties and coun­try­side type of bazaar set­ting. Every­one grew to love this fam­i­ly. I ex­tend my con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly. We will miss Gret­ta,” Ram­per­sad said.