Less than a year af­ter 96-year-old Util­da Joseph was ho­n­oured for be­ing the el­dest res­i­dent in her com­mu­ni­ty, she was mur­dered at her Quar­ry Vil­lage, Siparia home.

Her mur­der rocked the com­mu­ni­ty where she lived for sev­er­al years and was well re­spect­ed and loved. Joseph had one child, a son, who died from can­cer four years ago at the age of 74.

She lived alone in a wood­en house that had no elec­tric­i­ty in an un­der­de­vel­oped area at Hillview Lane.

Joseph’s life­less body was dis­cov­ered on her bed by a neigh­bour Di­anne Paul on Sat­ur­day af­ter­noon. Her left wrist was tied tight­ly with a piece of cloth while her oth­er hand was un­der her back. Blood­stains were on the side of her mouth. Po­lice be­lieve that her killer crawled in­to her house af­ter re­mov­ing three lou­vre panes from a front win­dow.

Speak­ing with re­porters, Paul re­called that she last spoke with the el­der­ly woman at her (Joseph) home on Fri­day around 3 pm. Around 12.30 pm on Sat­ur­day, she said, her daugh­ter told her that she did not see Joseph in the ham­mock when she was pass­ing. Paul grew con­cerned and de­cid­ed to check on her.

The front door was locked.

Af­ter knock­ing and call­ing with­out any re­sponse, she told her 25-year-old son to pass through the space in the win­dow where the lou­vres were miss­ing and open the door for her.

They then dis­cov­ered the el­der­ly woman dead.

They called the am­bu­lance and the po­lice.

Paul said she al­ways looked out for Joseph.

“I does look af­ter her be­cause I promise her son on his dy­ing bed. He ask me and I promise to do it, be­cause, she come like a grand­moth­er to all chil­dren in the vil­lage here.”

Joseph Thomp­son, the el­der­ly woman’s great-nephew lament­ed her mur­der.

“I have to side with Gary Grif­fith, a cock­roach, that is a cock­roach.” Thomp­son said his aunt spent the East­er week at his home in Moru­ga and he on­ly dropped her back home last week Thurs­day. He usu­al­ly checked on her twice a week and take her to the bank and gro­cery. Apart from a slight hear­ing im­pair­ment, he said she was very in­de­pen­dent and healthy.

For­mer MP for the area and res­i­dent Nicole Oliviere re­called said last Ju­ly, Joseph was ho­n­oured as the old­est per­son in the com­mu­ni­ty by the Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Min­istry at the open­ing of the com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre.

“It shows for any­one to treat an el­der­ly per­son in this man­ner, it shows that you have no com­pas­sion as a hu­man be­ing. Our el­der­ly cit­i­zens have lived so many years, they are a trea­sure. They are a walk­ing his­to­ry and we need to cher­ish them and learn from them and sup­port them.”

Rel­a­tives and the for­mer MP are call­ing for her killer or killers to be brought to jus­tice.

Joseph would have cel­e­brat­ed her birth­day in May.