Major breakthrough in the murder of Bushlot pensioner

 – Police seeking known suspect.

by Michael Jordan

The individual who butchered 85-year- old Sumintra Sawh known as “Aunty Betty”  in her bed on Monday apparently entered her Bush Lot, West Cost Berbice home via a bottom flat door that someone had left open.

The back door through which the killer entered gave the individual access to an inner stair that leads to the upper flat where the victim
slept.

Investigators think they know who that intruder might be. They are said to be “at an advanced stage in the investigation,” and are seeking “a known suspect.” The 37-year-old great-niece, who alleged that “two men in black clothing” had tied her up, is assisting the police in their investigations.

Police had observed abrasions on the great niece’s neck and right hand, which she claimed were inflicted by one of the intruders who had held
her at knifepoint.

Sumintra Sawh, known as ‘Aunty Betty,’ of Lot 131 Section B Bush Lot, was found dead on her blood-soaked bed shortly after 03.00 a.m. on
Monday.

She had been stabbed at least six times: to the temples, forehead and back of the head. The woman’s handbag, reportedly containing $350, 000, her pension book, national identification card, was said to be missing.

The great niece who is assisting the police alleged that her great-aunt was saving the money to repair her fence. The pensioner had lived
alone in her two-storey wooden and concrete house. The great-niece, who lives at Section ‘D’ Bush Lot, alleges that she visited ‘Aunty Betty’ at around 4.00 p.m. last Sunday.

She alleges that at around 7.00 p.m., Mrs. Sawh retired to a front bedroom in the upper flat while she went to a back bedroom.
She claims that at around 3.00 a.m. on Monday, she was awakened by a man who placed a knife to her throat and demanded money.

The man allegedly took her out of her bedroom and she saw another man with Sawh in the elderly woman’s bedroom. She claimed that her
captor took her to the bottom flat, tied her to a chair with ‘a sling’ and remained with her.

While under guard, the woman said she heard her great aunt scream out “don’t kill me grand-daughter.”

She said that the man who was with her great aunt eventually joined his accomplice in searching the bottom flat, before leaving via a
northern door, which was open.

She said she managed to untie herself, and found Mrs. Sawh lying in a pool of blood on her bed. She then raised an alarm. Sawh’s body was taken to the Fort Wellington Public Hospital, then to Bailey’s Funeral Parlour.