The gruesome sight of his wife and two infant daughters hanging dead from ropes tied around their necks will probably continue to haunt Rennie Samaroo for the rest of his life. Samaroo, of Wilson Road, Penal, found his wife Rawtee Boodoo, 31, and his two daughters hanging from a piece of rope tied to a rafter of the house. Samaroo's screams pierced the still of the night, enough to alert his closest neighbour, as he saw his daughters–Aishwariah, aged five and 15-month-old baby Kathrina–also dangling next to his wife's body. Aishwariah was a student of the Clarke Rochard Hindu School. The bizarre affair rocked the community as neighbours and relatives gathered around the home to ascertain what could have caused a mother to murder her children and then commit suicide.
Police believe she killed the children while they slept before taking her own life. The pieces of rope, cut from the family's hammock, they surmised, may have been tied around the children's neck as they lay asleep in their mother's arms. In between tears, a visibly distraught Samaroo, speaking at the family's home yesterday, said he never believed Boodoo was capable of murder. He said around 7 pm he and his wife had an argument. He said around 2 am he got up feeling that something was wrong. "The house was quiet. I went to the front room and that was when I saw what she did," Samaroo said, burying his face in his hands. He said he ran out of the house and called a neighbour who in turn contacted the police. Samaroo said Boodoo never displayed any suicidal tendencies and was loving and protective of their children. "I cannot say she was a bad mother. She loved them. I loved my children. How could she do this to me? Look how she take them away from me," Samaroo said. He said he sold doubles for a living and had just started to fix up their house. Samaroo's mother Deokie said the couple had financial problems.
She said: "I used to do what I could to help them. I give them $20,000. What more could they ask for? These children were innocent. They deserved to live," Deokie sobbed. She said she spoke to Boodoo almost every day and never once did she appear to be suicidal. Neighbours reported that Boodoo was a compassionate person who did anything she could to help others. One neighbour said: "She was a warm and loving girl. Before she pick up with Rennie she took care of a neighbour's child for a year. She loved her children and would do anything for them. "I think she killed them out of love because she could not end her life and leave them alone to suffer."
Boodoo's mother, Shirley Boodram, described her as a private person who never shared her problems.
She said in the seven years her daughter shared a home with Samaroo, "she left him once and came back home with the children. "She never tell me what happened. Rennie used to come every evening and they would talk. After a week, she went back home," Boodram recalled. She said her daughter never displayed any suicidal tendencies but recalled that as a teenager she attempted to end her life due to frustration. Boodram said her husband Boodoo Jaikeran died at aged 32 when Boodoo was just two years old. With two children, including a disabled son to care for, Boodram said she turned to making and selling kurma for 50 cents a pack. She said Boodoo was given the responsibility of caring for her disabled brother, "but she became frustrated and tried to take her life. "She was my only daughter," Boodram cried. "They were my loving grandchildren. I would see them almost every week. Now they dead and gone.
