Final accused in murder of South Road grannies freed

The trial into the murders of two elderly women – Constance Fraser, 89, and Phyllis Caesar, 77 – ended on Thursday with the final accused, Phillip Suffrien being freed upon Demerara High Court Judge Jo Ann Barlow directing the jury to return a formal not-guilty verdict.

Suffrien, who had been on remand for the past five years, was discharged three years after his former two co-accused had pleaded guilty to killing the women. They were each sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of being paroled after serving 35 years.

When the trial continued on Thursday morning, Justice Barlow found that the evidence adduced by the prosecution would not be sufficient to prove the element of the offence beyond a reasonable doubt. As such, she directed the jury to return a formal not-guilty verdict.
After he was arraigned for the capital offence, Suffrien, of Albouystown, Georgetown, denied the charge which stated that he murdered the women between October 2 and October 3, 2017, during the course/furtherance of a robbery at South Road and Albert Street, Georgetown.

The former murder accused was represented by defence counsel Madan Kissoon.
In 2019, Christopher Khan, also known as “Imran Khan”, and Stephen Andrews were arraigned for the women’s murders. They, however, opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.

The bodies of Fraser, known as “Mother Fraser”, and Caesar, her niece, were found in the upper flat of their home in their respective bedrooms. They were found lying unconscious on their beds. Caesar’s hands and legs were bound, and a piece of cloth had been stuffed in her mouth. According to reports, Caesar had failed to report to her place of worship, as is customary, prompting several attempts to contact the duo, all of which were to no avail.
A congregation member then alerted the Police, and together they ventured into the home and discovered the two women dead. The elderly women were last seen alive while attending church two days prior to the discovery of their bodies.
Autopsies conducted on the bodies of the two women by Dr Nehaul Singh revealed that they died as a result of asphyxiation due to suffocation and manual strangulation, compounded by blunt trauma to the head.