Senior Multimedia Reporter
radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
When he saw his mother being chopped to death, a teenager tried to fend off the attacker with a stick before eventually fleeing with his seven-year-old brother to beg neighbours for help.
By the time their neighbours arrived, Laura Sankar, 34, a maxi-taxi driver, was dead. Her body was found near the bathroom of her Post Office Trace, Princes Town, home.
The incident, which occurred at 5.45 pm on Saturday, brings to six, the number of females attacked within a week, four of which were fatal.
Sankar’s sister Sherry Ann Sankar said she was at her Chaguanas home when she received a phone call about the incident.
“I called her phone, and (name called) answered. I asked, ‘Where Laura?’ He said, ‘She dead, that is it, I fed up.’” Sherry Ann said she later found out that Sankar had been getting ready to take her children to a car show when the relative attacked her with a cutlass.
“I heard he was drinking, and they had an argument. She was sitting in the hammock. Then she went inside to get dressed, he came behind her with the cutlass and chopped her to death,” Sherry Ann said, wiping tears from her eyes.
She explained that Sankar had been in a relationship for 18 years. While it appeared good in the beginning, there had been some worrying developments.
“One time he drink poison and another time he attacked my brother with a hammer,” she said.
However, Sankar never made any formal reports to the police. Instead, she focused on building her life, studying to be a nurse, earning an income as a maxi taxi driver and taking care of her children.
“My sister was a gem. My children were always up here by Aunty Laura. Every holiday she would take care of all of them. She has a maxi that picks up school children. She was always kind to all the children. She was a loving person. She did what she had to do and she never depended on anybody,” Sherry Ann recalled.
She said Sankar’s children are receiving counselling from the T&T Police Service (TTPS).
“It seems they saw what happened. One child was bathing, and the other was getting dressed when they heard their mother’s screams. I don’t think the little one understands what happened, the big one knows,” Sherry Ann said.
She recalled that last month Sankar sent her a song on YouTube. As the song played, she wept and advised women to get out of abusive relationships.
“Nowadays we see men on a rampage because they see women as the weaker vessel. I want to tell women, when you see red flags, it’s time to move on before you lose your life,” she sobbed.
“Instead of men caring and loving women, they take advantage because they have this egotistic, masculine, superior behaviour. The end game should not be losing your life.”
She said Sankar was abused because her alleged killer was insecure and often accused her of infidelity.
“If the phone rings, or if she gets a message, he would say tell her look a man calling you,” Sherry Ann said.
Neighbours expressed horror over the killing but said they did not know why the incident occurred.
There have been 28 domestic murders for the year, with 14 of the cases solved.
Last Monday, Tara Ramsaroop and her one-year-old baby Shermaya were chopped to death at their Barrackpore home. On October 9, Sunita Mohammed, 50, of 10 Pond Lane, School Trace, Gasparillo, died after being pushed down during a domestic dispute.
Between January and August, the police reported more than 1,227 cases of domestic violence.
