The body of a Surinamese woman was discovered in a room of a West Berbice hotel.
Dead is 25-year-old Gaitree Katrain called ‘Kimberly’ of Kandratikiweg, Saramacca, Nickerie, Suriname.
The woman was expected to check out of the Starlite Hotel on Monday after spending three days.
Her lifeless body was found in a room at the hotel located at D’Edward Village, West Bank Berbice.
Dead: 25-year-old Gaitree Katrain, called “Kimberly”
The discovery was made at about 17:00h on Monday by the hotel’s manager.
According to the police, the woman had checked into a hotel room alone on Thursday last and was scheduled to check out on Monday.
Reports are that, during her stay she would periodically leave and return to the hotel but on Monday after she did not check out as was scheduled, the manager went to the room and found her lying face down on the bed, with a white teacup beside her head.
She was picked up and taken to the Fort Wellington Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Katrain had left Suriname to visit her uncle, who lives in Berbice. However, according to her mother, Sonita Katrain, when she contacted her daughter via a social media platform on one occasion, she refused to disclose her location. “She say, ‘tell Papa and you stay good’, that is all she tell me,” the now-dead woman’s mother revealed.
Sonita Katrain stated that she later contacted the bus driver responsible for picking up the young lady in Corriverton and transporting her to her uncle’s house.
“The bus driver say that she leave with a next bus and she didn’t go with him. He said that she went in a Georgetown bus,” the grieving mother said.
She said she subsequently learned that her daughter was at the hotel, after the manager called to say that she had passed her check out time.
“I called the number…her mother answered. When the person answered, i told her that it was pass her checking out time. I told her that it is three hours past her checking out time and the person asked me “check out from where?” so I asked if it was not Gaitree I was speaking to, and then the person told me that she was the mother,” the hotel manager recounted.
Manager of the hotel, Jagdesh Ganesh explained that when Gaitree Katrain checked in she provided that phone number as her contact information.
According to him, after a few hours had passed and he was getting no response from the guest, he decided to go into the room.
“I take a spare key and notice that door was bolted from the inside and I shake it and the door opened and I see her lay flat on the bed face down. I watched her and noticed that she was not moving or responding so I come out and called the [police] station,” the manager said.
Police have since said that two bottles containing a red substance suspected to be gasoline
According to the hotel manager, he had a discussion with a cousin of the dead woman who revealed information pertaining to Katrain and the gasoline.
“Like she is addicted to this gasoline,” he said.
“One of her cousins called me to find out about the story and she told me that her parents had to hide gasoline from her; she would smell the gasoline and she would get high,” the manager claimed he was told.
The now-dead woman’s mother when asked about the issue of gasoline, said she was told that her daughter consumed gasoline.
Asked if Katrain was suicidal, or was in the habit of inhaling gasoline, her mother replied in the negative.
“She never attempted… She always say that she would never kill she self; she will never do that, she will never make the devil tempt her to do that,” she replied.
Meanwhile, an autopsy conducted on the body of Katrain on Wednesday by Government Pathologist Dr Vivekanand Bridgemohan found that she died as a result of gasoline ingestion. (G4)
