Final accused in murder of South Road grannies goes on trial Monday

Almost three years after his two co-accused had pleaded guilty to killing two elderly women — Constance Fraser, 89, and Phyllis Caesar, 77 — Phillip Suffrien, the final accused in the matter, will go on trial from June 1 before Demerara High Court Judge Jo-Ann Barlow.

Suffrien, formerly of Albouystown, Georgetown, has been indicted for the capital offence of murder upon his arraignment on Wednesday. He pleaded not guilty to the charge, which alleged that he murdered the women between October 2 and 3, 2017, during the course/furtherance of a robbery.
His trial will commence on June 1 before a 12-member jury. Madan Kissoon is his lawyer.
In 2019, Christopher Khan, also known as “Imran Khan”, and Stephen Andrews was arraigned for the women’s murder. They, however, opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.
In the end, they were each sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 35 years.
The bodies of Fraser, known as “Mother Fraser”, and Caesar, her niece, were found in the upper flat of their South Road and Albert Street, Georgetown 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.