Mother, 11-year-old daughter found murdered in home

— alleged killer on the run

By LaWanda McAllister

Cuban National Yoel Rodrigues is now on the run after he allegedly murdered his 34-year-old Guyanese partner and her 11-year-old daughter sometime between Christmas Day and on the evening of Boxing Day, at their Princess Street, Lodge, Georgetown home.
The bodies of Tara Krishnaran and her daughter Larissa Singh were discovered at about 21:00h on Boxing Day.
Based on reports received, father of the dead woman told Police that the suspect, a Cuban national, 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. 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 she had gone to work and had taken her daughter with her.
However, at about 20:30h, the man went to his daughter’s room to check on them, and it was then the gruesome discovery was made. Both the mother and daughter were lying motionless, on a bed and on the ground respectively. Wound were discovered at the back of the woman’s head, left side 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, the dead woman’s brother Amar Krishnaran narrated what he was told happened to his sister and niece.
“Normally when they go to work, they does make he [the 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 the 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 realized that something was amiss.
Rebekah Krishnaran, the elderly man’s daughter-in-law, told this publication that her father-in-law, who is not able-bodied and requires help to move around, 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.
She said that after realising this, the man slowly managed to get his phone and called her to come to the scene.

“He called me and my husband and said it looks like this guy killed them in the room, and it could be that he is in there too… When we came we had to break the locks on the door… The mother was hit to the head with a hammer, twice, once in the back of her head and once to her left temple, and the child was on the ground, her throat was slashed, and she was only wearing a top and was wearing no bottom or undergarments…”, she explained.
Rebekah said Tara’s lover was always jealous, and would constantly verbally abuse her, but it never got to the extent of him physically assaulting her.
“They had a conflict once and he hit her, but it was not too serious that we thought he would have done this…”, she said.
She added that her sister-in-law and the man has been living together for about 10 months, and have been dating for about a year. She said when she asked her father-in-law what the argument between the deceased and the suspect was about, he recalled it was about the suspect, the now dead woman and her daughter going to spend Christmas Day with her brother.

Rebekah explained that her father-in-law also related that he recalled hearing his granddaughter screaming once, but he took it for nothing, since she would usually scream suddenly when she sees centipedes that are always crawling into the house.
The woman said that following the discovery of the bodies, checks were made in the elderly man’s room, where it was discovered that all his money was missing. It is believed that the suspect stole the money while her father-in-law was asleep.
“I am happy that he was asleep when he took it because that money might have cost him his life too”, she said.
She described Tara as “the life of the party”, and her niece as a very jovial child.
The bodies are currently at the Lyken’s Funeral Home awaiting a post-mortem. Investigations are ongoing.