Crane man poisons children, then hangs himself
By Michelle Gonsalves
THE community of Crane Housing Scheme, on the West Coast of Demerara was plunged into mourning late yesterday when one of their own, believed to be suffering from depression, gave his two youngest children a noxious substance to drink before hanging himself.

Simon Boodhoo, a 61-year-old pensioner, administered what is believed to be the prescription drug, Valium (Diazepam), in the form of 10 mg tabs, to 12-year-old Samuel and six-year old Crystal Boodhoo, before hanging himself from a beam in the same room where the children lay on a bed dying.

Their distraught mother, Lori Boodhoo, 46, who is employed as a domestic at Pooran’s Pharmacy, on New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop, said she came home from work at around 16:15hrs yesterday and, not seeing nor hearing the children, thought that they must have been at a neighbour’s.

On entering the bedroom, however, she was greeted by the horrific sight of her children and husband, all dead. Lamenting the loss of her children, Lori said: “Everybody know how meh two children nice, and I don’t geh them all about.”

According to Lori, her husband was in a constant state of depression due to the fact that he was impotent, which not only “aggravated him” but set him thinking “negatively” about her.

She said he was verbally and physically abusive to her and constantly snapped at the children. “Up to last night,” she said, “I overheard him telling the children: ‘Ya’ll don’t bother me; ya’ll is a task,’” meaning that they were a burden to him.

He kept telling her, she said: “One ah these days, yuh gone come home and see them dead.” According to Lori, her husband never contributed any money to the upkeep of the home, and whatever little was there, he’d spend it all gambling. He’d even threatened that if she ever entertained the thought of evicting him, he would kill the children.

The murder appeared to have been premeditated and Lori believes that her husband had begun feeding the Valium to the children days before by slipping it into their porridge, as the children had seemed to be unusually drowsy of late and were sleeping a lot more than usual.

They may have aggravated the situation, she surmised, was when her sister, who lives in the Bahamas, offered to take her with her for a vacation, much to the annoyance of her husband.

When asked how she felt about the tragedy, Donna Bowman, a family-friend and neighbor, said: “Oh gosh! Don’t even ask! I used to talk to Lori and tell her: ‘Leave that man! Stay by yourself! Let the man go away!’”

Dhanrajie Dhatt, one of Lori’s workmates, said she couldn’t believe what she was hearing when she learnt of the tragedy. “My skin grow; I couldn’t move,” she said.

Samuel, who apparently just wrote the National Grade Six examinations, was a former pupil of the Crane Primary School and was about to enter secondary school. His sister, Crystal, attended Crane Nursery, and was about to start primary school. Lori has two older children, but thankfully, they don’t live with her.

She believes that had she had them with her, they might have been dead as well.

 Sunday, July 19, 2009