- Husband detained
LINE PATH, CORENTYNE –
What began as a mundane day quickly changed for residents of Line Path
on the Corentyne when the body of 43-year-old Nalini Bhoge was found
in her home about mid-morning yesterday.
Police in Berbice recovered a cutlass and an ice pick which were
suspected to be the weapons of choice in the woman’s death. The
woman’s husband has been detained.
The mother of three was found with her neck almost severed and a
chop to the back of her head.
The circumstances surrounding her demise are still unclear. However,
according to police reports, she was alone at her Lot 19 Line Path
home when the incident occurred.
Police reports further indicate that her husband, Boodh Bhoge, had
left their home earlier to take the two younger children to school.
Upon his return, he entered the three-bedroom home then shortly after
made his way back to the front stairway (verandah) to smoke a
cigarette.
He later went back into the house where he saw his wife in bed, dead.
According to information received from police, the man said when he
returned home he did not look around for his wife neither did he
suspect that anything was wrong.
The house showed no signs of breakage and the husband indicated to
police that he may have left a window open. The victim’s husband
also told detectives that he had some $60,000 in the home but at that
time it was too soon to say if it was missing.
As word of the tragedy found its way around the community, several
persons flocked the scene to get a glimpse of the victim. Sometime
after 13:00 hours the corpse was taken to the Skeldon Hospital where
an autopsy is expected to be performed shortly.
When Kaieteur News arrived on the scene, detectives led by Divisional
Detective Officer, Marlon Chapman, were scouring the scene for clues.
The husband, Boodh Bhoge called ‘Minku’, a cane farmer, tried to
avoid the spotlight at all cost. He even guided his daughters away
from media representatives whenever possible. He briefly said he
returned home and saw his wife dead and could not say what had
transpired.
Their eldest child, 12-year old Bharti Bhoge said she was at school
when she heard the news, “Some students say somebody chop she, I
don’t know how, but me mother dead. I left home about 8:30 for
school and she been home alone.”
The Skeldon Line Path Secondary School student immediately made her
way home where she confirmed that it was all true, “When I come home
I see a set of people. I didn’t see the body. Daddy say he come home
and see Mummy lie down in the room dead. They say she neck chop.”
The child said her father and mother took turns in escorting her two
younger siblings to school. Ten-year old Khishana Bhoge, a Grade Five
student, and seven-year old Pravena Bhoge, a Grade Three student, both
attend Skeldon Primary School.
Yesterday, her father left home with the children before she did,
and as she was leaving her mother’s last words to her were, “Turn
off the pump.”
Sitting on a bench under the house where the incident happened, the
dead woman’s mother, Vadewattie called ‘Bado’, wept bitterly as
relatives tried to console her, “Me nah know me name… me nah know
anything now…me daughter dead.”
When she did compose herself she said she was at her home in another
section of the same Line Path when her son-in-law, Boodh Bhoge, placed
a telephone call to her, “He ask if me son Vicky deh home. He say
alyuh come quick! Me ask he what wrong but he nah say nuttin’ We
then left fuh come here.”
When the 69-year old woman arrived on the scene just about 10:00
hours, her worst fears became a reality, “When me run upstairs, me
see she lie down in the room on the ground.
Me see the blood and me can’t see no more. Me fall down. She
alone been home when it happen, rice been cook on the stove when it
happen. She husband tell me that she been ah sweep a front ah de
house. The husband tell me he had to turn off the stove. He say one
room ransack. When me come they had blood on she clothes and blood on
the floor.”
A neighbour, Bhagwattie Nakhul, saw Nalini Bhoge sometime between
08:30 and 09:00 hours and she recalled that the woman appeared to be
her usual self. Moments later she heard someone calling at the
Bhoge’s gate but she paid no attention to the caller, explaining
that because of the nature of Mr. Bhoge’s job, the family gets
frequent visitors.
A short time after she heard Mr. Bhoge communicating with a
passerby,.”Somebody kill me wife,” she heard him say. “Me watch
he and he watch me and nuh say nuttin’ to me.” To her this
behaviour was not odd, “He funny bad…But she was a nice
person…friendly.”
When Bhagwattie Nakhul saw the body, the woman was lying on her
stomach drenched in blood.
The family had been robbed last month by armed bandits.
