Geisha Kow­lessar

A po­lice con­sta­ble is as­sist­ing his col­leagues in seek­ing out the per­pe­tra­tors who kid­napped and killed his wife in east Trinidad yes­ter­day morn­ing.

The po­lice­man, who is as­signed to the Fi­nance Branch in Port-of-Spain, was pro­vid­ing se­nior East­ern Di­vi­sion of­fi­cers with state­ments re­gard­ing the stab­bing death of Bas­math Seemu­n­gal-Akaloo.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion, head­ed by Se­nior Supt Mar­garet Samp­son-Brown, in­clud­ed Sgt Awong-Kool, Cpl Ker­ry Gar­cia and PCs Roger Boodoo and Kurt Lockitt.

The body of Seemu­n­gal-Akaloo, a school­teacher at Man­zanil­la High School, was dis­cov­ered wrapped in a green sheet in a bushy area at Guaico, Tamana.

The body bore sev­er­al stab wounds to the neck and hands.

Po­lice said the woman was gagged and her hands bound.

Mere hours be­fore the dis­cov­ery, Seemu­n­gal-Akaloo who lived at Cu­nar­ipo with her hus­band was ab­duct­ed by four masked men.

Po­lice said that around 5.10 pm, the moth­er of a three-year-old daugh­ter got up to use the bath­room when she no­ticed a van parked at the front gate.

Be­liev­ing the van might have be­longed to that of a close rel­a­tive, po­lice said, Seemu­n­gal-Akaloo woke her hus­band, telling him she was go­ing to open the gate to let in the rel­a­tive.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter she opened the gate, four armed, masked men ex­it­ed the van and forced their way in­to the house.

Seemu­n­gal-Akaloo's hus­band was then tied up by two of the men.

The oth­er two, po­lice said, tot­ed a quan­ti­ty of elec­tron­ic items in­clud­ing a tele­vi­sion set, cash and jew­el­ry out of the house and in­to the tray of the van.

The men then bun­dled Seemu­n­gal-Akaloo in­to the van and sped off.

Six hours lat­er, David Sylvester dis­cov­ered the kid­napped woman's body wrapped in a green sheet in some bush­es at Guaico, some 20 min­utes from her home.

Ac­cord­ing to Sylvester, he was walk­ing his dog when around 11.11 am, he spot­ted a sheet and up­on in­ves­ti­gat­ing he saw a hand and foot stick­ing out.

Say­ing he was shocked by the find, Sylvester de­scribed Seemu­n­gal-Akaloo as a qui­et per­son who was re­spect­ed by the com­mu­ni­ty.

Fight­ing back tears, the dead woman's aunt Roopan­daye Jhin­gal said it was in­com­pre­hen­si­ble why some­one would mur­der her niece.

"This is re­al­ly a shock. Why would some­one do this? It is be­yond my com­pre­hen­sion," Jhin­gal said.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors dis­cov­ered a kitchen knife be­lieved to be used in the stab­bing and a pair of gloves at the crime scene.