Woman remanded to prison for murder of Aunty Betty

The woman who confessed to killing her 85-year-old relative was Friday remanded to prison.

Roshanie Basdeo of Bushlot, West Coast Berbice, made her first court appearance at the Weldaad Magistrate Court. She was charged with the capital offence of murder and was not required to plead to the indictable charge.

Sumintra Sawh, 85, was found battered to death on her birthday (28th November 2022). She at the time lived alone, but her great niece, Roshanie Basdeo, would usually stay with her in the nights.

Basdeo, who was taken into custody the same day Sawh’s body was discovered, had told Police that two men armed with knives entered the home, robbed Sawh of $350,000 and killed her.

However, hours later, Basdeo changed her story. She told police that she was a part of a plan with a male neighbor to rob the woman and buy a scooter and take over the house.

She said the man killed Sawh, took the money and threatened that if she told anyone he did it, she will be killed.

Police had issued a wanted bulletin for the man.

Basdeo then changed her story once again; this time, she admitted to committing the dastardly act all by herself.

She revealed to authorities that she told the other stories to defend herself after she committed the act. She claimed the now dead woman had accused her of stealing her money.

Basdeo told police that on November 27, 2022, she went to the home of Sawh and the woman accused her of stealing money and other documents.

She said she told Sawh that she did not take the money nor anything else from the house, but that the woman continued to accuse her throughout the evening.

Basdeo told investigators that she became annoyed and armed herself with a hammer and a piece of wood.

She said she dealt the woman several lashes to her head until she became unconscious. She said she then ventured to the lower flat and grabbed a razor blade and self inflicted cuts to her neck and hand.

Basdeo further detailed that the nightgown she was wearing was splattered with the blood of Sawh and so she took if off and placed it in a black plastic bag together with the hammer and dumped it in the pit toilet in the yard.

She still denies stealing the money and the documents from the woman.

Basdeo subsequently led investigators back to the scene where the hammer and blue nightgown with what appeared to be blood spots were retrieved from the pit toilet.

A wood, which she also used to hit the woman, was also retrieved from a shed, together with the razor blade in the lower flat.