Police are investigating the murder of a 28-year-old woman who was stabbed to death by her ex-husband.
Dead is Tovanie Simmons, of Second Street, Limlair Village, Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
Reports are the alleged perpetrator, who attempted to commit suicide after stabbing the woman to death, had left his wife and was living with his new-found love – a next door neighbour.
Guyana Times was told that at about 23:20h, the suspect, Imran Lyte, 28, stabbed Simmons about 10 times before fleeing the scene. However, he was later taken to
Dead is Tovanie Simmons
the Port Mourant Hospital by relatives after he reportedly ingested a poisonous substance. He is currently under Police guard at a medical facility.
Meanwhile, the dead woman’s mother, Jacklyn Henry, related that Simmons was visited by her ex-husband and his sister and they were sitting at the table having a discussion when he started stabbing the mother of four.
“He grab she and start jucking she and she holla and jump on me; I went in the chair sitting down and I try fuh block he and he fire the knife at me and she run out on the landing.”
Henry further explained that Lyte went onto the veranda where a relative tried to restrain him but he was able to free himself and pursued the woman, continuing to stab her.
When this publication visited the Limlair home, bloodstains were spattered on the floor.
In her account, Henry said she screamed for her daughter to escape and she jumped over the veranda onto the ground while her ex-husband’s sister shouted on her to run. However, the suspect ran through the house and exited the door, skipping stairs in his pursuit of Simmons. The already injured woman was haplessly caught on the street where she was again repeatedly stabbed. Lyte made good his escape before he could have been apprehended as everyone was focused on the woman lying on the ground bleeding.
Guyana Times understands that last Saturday, Simmons had gone to collect her
The house where the woman was attacked
children from another part of the village and on her journey, she was confronted by Lyte who accused her of allowing her friends to taunt his new lover. Lyte reportedly hit Simmons, and in retaliation, her sisters reportedly kicked him causing him to fall into a nearby trench.
One of the now dead woman’s brothers, who was passing at the time, went to his sisters’ rescue but Lyte attacked him, stabbing him several times.
According to Henry, since Saturday’s incident, the Police visited her next door neighbour in search of Lyte on several occasions but was on each occasion told that he was not at home.
“They just come at the gate and ask for him and he deh right inside the house.”
The couple had been together for nine years and have four children; ages eight, six and three-year-old twins. Henry said Lyte was always very kind but in the last few months after the relationship with her daughter ended, he became abusive.
The grieving mother told this publication following the December last year separation, Lyte on one occasion destroyed her daughter’s cellphone but his sister asked for them not to get the Police involved because of Lyte’s financial position at the time.
She said there were other instances where Lyte brought physical harm to her daughter. She also said her daughter had made several reports of threats made to her by Lyte at the Whim Police Station but those reports were never acted upon by Police. Investigations are continuing. (Andrew Carmichael)
