The brutal stabbing of 68-year-old Patsy Ramcharan by a close female relative has left her relatives heartbroken and confused.
Ramcharan suffered 70 wounds while her husband was sprayed with pepper spray to prevent him from helping her during the attack at their White Trace, St Mary’s Village, Moruga home on Sunday.
According to relatives, the 38-year-old suspect is a US citizen and US Marines veteran and shared a close relationship with Ramcharan.
Four months ago, Ramcharan returned home after visiting the suspect, her seven-year-old daughter and husband at their Louisiana home and the suspect returned to T&T with her.
Trying to hold back the tears, Ramcharan’s husband Jim Ramcharan, 78, yesterday recalled that they had planned to go back with the suspect to Louisiana to spend Christmas with the suspect and her family.
“There was no argument,” he said.
Ramcharan said he was cutting up chataigne in the gallery while his wife was cooking lunch on Sunday.
He said the suspect was “ole talking and laughing” with him. However, not long after, he heard his wife bawl out “Oh God, Oh God.”
Jim said his wife then ran into the porch.
“When I get up, I see blood running down by she neck and (name called) had a knife in her hand. She say, ‘You don’t come, you don’t come’ and she start spraying me down with a pepper spray,” Jim recalled.
He said he ran outside to alert the neighbours and get help. By then, he said the suspect had taken Ramcharan back into the house, locked the doors and continued stabbing her. He said the neighbours called out to the suspect to open the door but she refused.
When the police arrived about ten minutes later, they used a sledgehammer to force the door open. His wife was found covered in blood and slumped in on a chair. The suspect’s hands were covered in blood. The police seized a bloody brown knife.
“She (Ramcharan) was still bawling ‘oh God, oh God’. We called the ambulance and they said they could not come right now.”
He said they wrapped her in a sheet and rushed her to the San Fernando General Hospital.
“We had no quarrelling, no hard talking. It just happened in a split second,” he lamented. Ramcharan’s sister Sherma Baptiste recalled that when she spoke to the suspect, she said, “They didn’t want to give me what I want.”
However, Baptiste said she had no idea what she meant. She said the suspect served in the US Marines for about 12 years and retired three years ago.
Asked if she may have had post-traumatic stress disorder, she said, “I cannot say. Like something just tripped her off. That was not natural. She was so calm when I spoke to her, when I say what you do.”
She described the suspect as a peacemaker.
“I can’t understand what could have led her to do that. I know she not that type of person. I not blaming her,” Baptiste said.
However, she advised people experiencing problems to talk about it and not keep it bottled up inside. Ramcharan and Jim celebrated their 22nd-anniversary last month but they had no children together. However, Ramcharan had two children and several grandchildren.
An autopsy is expected to be done later this week. Officers of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region 3 are investigating.
