Cuban national Yoel Rodrigues Barientos aka “Joel Rodrigues”, who has been arrested for the murders of his 34-year-old partner Tara Krishnaran and her 11-year-old daughter Larissa Singh, has since confessed to the heinous crime and will face charges today.
The Cuban national was apprehended on Monday in Amelia’s Ward, Linden after the Police had issued a warrant for his arrest for the murders.
During interrogation, Barientos told detectives that on Christmas Night he got angry after the now dead woman informed him that she was going to visit a relative. This, he noted, led to an argument, and it was then that he picked up a hammer and dealt the woman several blows to her head.
She collapsed on the bed and died instantly.
He further told detectives that the crime was witnessed by the dead woman’s daughter, and in order to prevent her from testify against him, he attacked and stabbed the 11-year-old to the neck and body with a knife. She died moments after her mother. He, however, denied that he sexually molested the child.
According to a post-mortem examination, Krishnaran died of blunt force trauma to the head, and her daughter of an incise wound to the neck and blunt force trauma.
After committing the acts, Barientos reportedly went into his ailing father-in-law’s room and stole an undisclosed sum of money, which he used to travel to Linden. His intention, he stated, was to cross the border into Brazil.
He is expected to be arraigned at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court today.
It was reported that the bodies of Krishnaran and Singh were discovered at about 21:00h on Boxing Day at their Princes Street home in Lodge, Georgetown. Based on initial reports received, the father of the dead woman told Police that the suspect and his daughter were heard arguing at about 17:30h on December 25. This was followed by a scuffle between them.
However, the man did not take it seriously, since the couple would normally fight, and, as such, he retired to bed. At about 08:00h on December 26, the father woke up, but did not check on his daughter and granddaughter, since he thought that she had gone to work and had taken her daughter with her.
At approximately 20:30h, the man went to his daughter’s room to check on them, and it was then that he made the gruesome discovery.
His daughter and granddaughter were lying motionless on a bed and on the ground respectively.
Wounds were discovered at the back of the woman’s head, left temple and left side of the face, while the child sustained a stab wound to her neck. It is suspected that she was also raped. A blood-stained hammer and a knife were retrieved from the scene.
At the home of the dead woman on Sunday, her brother Amar Krishnaran narrated what he was told had happened to his sister and niece.
“Normally, when they go to work, they does make he [our father’s] food and put it on the table…he didn’t see the food on the table and didn’t know what happened…as the time was going by during the day, he didn’t see the little girl coming out to feed the puppy…,” he said.
Amar said his father waited for hours for his daughter, and he did not see her or the child come in, so he decided to go to the room to check.
“He went and pull the blind and he saw my niece lying on the ground right there… She was motionless and the room was dark, so whatever glimpse he saw of the mother on the bed, that was it…so he took his foot and touched her [the child’s] hand, and there were no movements,” the tearful man said. It was then the 69-year-old man realised that something was amiss.
He tried to make his way to the door to get help, and realised that the doors were locked from the outside and the keys were missing. He then managed to get his phone and call relatives to the scene.
Guyana Times understands that Krishnaran and Barientos had been living together for about 10 months, and had been dating for just over a year. They had worked at the same establishment in Georgetown.
