Sascha Wil­son

Eighty-year-old Cal­tus Mudie died yes­ter­day, leav­ing his rel­a­tives and in­ves­ti­ga­tors with many unan­swered ques­tions.

Mudie, a gar­den­er, was shot by the po­lice af­ter he mur­dered his wife Syl­da and chopped his son Derek at their Ed­ward Trace, Bas­seterre Vil­lage home in Moru­ga on Wednes­day.

Mudie died around 4 am at the In­ten­sive Care Unit of the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

Ini­tial re­ports said around 10.30 am on Wednes­day the cou­ple had an ar­gu­ment but in­ves­ti­ga­tors have since in­ter­viewed Derek, who said there was no ar­gu­ment.

Derek, who suf­fered a chop wound to the head, was dis­charged from the hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said Derek told them he was down­stairs speak­ing to his fa­ther about con­struct­ing liv­ing quar­ters for his moth­er down­stairs be­cause of her ill health and age.

He told in­ves­ti­ga­tors that with­out warn­ing, his fa­ther at­tacked him with a cut­lass and they strug­gled.

Derek pulled away and while run­ning off he heard a gun­shot.

Po­lice be­lieve that Mudie then went up­stairs and shot his wife with his li­censed 16-gauge shot­gun.

Undertakers drive off with the body of Sylda mudie who was fatally shot by a close relative at Edward Trace, Basseterre Village, Moruga yesterday.

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

When of­fi­cers of the Moru­ga po­lice ar­rived at the house, they met Mudie stand­ing next to a steel box in the yard in front of his house with a firearm next to him. He reached for the gun and the of­fi­cers or­dered him to stop. But the sus­pect picked up the firearm and as he raised it in the di­rec­tion of the of­fi­cers, they fired 11 shots at him. Mudie was hit mul­ti­ple times in his legs and chest. The bul­lets pierced his lungs.

When the of­fi­cers went up­stairs, they found Syl­da’s body on the floor. Syl­da, a for­mer lay-min­is­ter in the Catholic Church, was well-loved in the com­mu­ni­ty.

Syl­da and Derek had re­turned to the coun­try on Sat­ur­day af­ter vis­it­ing rel­a­tives in the Unit­ed States. Po­lice con­firmed that Syl­da had not filed any do­mes­tic vi­o­lence re­ports at the Moru­ga Po­lice Sta­tion. She was a moth­er of two and grand­moth­er of one.

Rel­a­tives de­clined to speak with the me­dia on Wednes­day.

When Guardian Me­dia reached out to one of Syl­da’s rel­a­tives yes­ter­day, he lament­ed that Syl­da did not de­serve to die in such a bru­tal man­ner.

Of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau Re­gion 3 are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.