GUYSUCO cane harvester Desmond Gordon, called “Wrong Man”, beat then hacked to death his reputed wife Bhagmattie Etwaroo, called “Kamini”, at their Lot 196 Mangroo Street, Rose Hall Town home in Region Six, East Berbice/Corentyne at about 18:00hrs on Monday.The couple of eight years was reportedly imbibing all day, and Gordon wanted the 50-year-old mother of seven to stop drinking but she refused, thus an argument ensued.

Family friend Lennox Fernandes intervened and sat Gordon down on the stairs while Etwaroo remained on the verandah; but as Fernandez was talking to Gordon, Etwaroo jumped from the verandah and hurt herself.

Enraged, Gordon picked up a piece of wood and started to beat her about her body. He then dragged her to a room in the lower flat of the house and hacked her to death, severing her head in the process.

“I see they were drinking and then fighting and quarrelling. He de beating she bad-bad man, so I go and talk to he to try calm he down. He seh ‘ah gon kill she, you know’,” Fernandes detailed.

Fernandes said he informed a neighbour to call the Rose Hall Town Police Outpost and make a report of the abuse, but when the station was contacted, an officer reportedly said, “It’s husband and wife problems”.

Fernandez told the Guyana Chronicle that, minutes later, he saw Gordon on the street front covered in blood, threatening to take his own life.

“He tell me ‘I kill she, you know. She done; I going and hang meself’,” Fernandes detailed.

Fernandez said he tried to talk to Gordon to cut time so that he would not go anywhere; and as Gordon made his way to another street, he was cornered by several residents.

Fernandez said he went personally to the Rose Hall Town Police Outpost and brought an officer to the scene.

The family friend believes that if the police had acted earlier, the woman’s life could have been saved.

Neighbours, meanwhile, told this publication that Etwaroo had, for years, been abused by her reputed husband. “Just two weeks ago, he hold she and pelt she down on the road. She run come and hide. He de want come in the yard to continue to beat her, so me put he out… Everybody does warn she bout he… that man always threaten to kill her, and does beat her mercilessly…. It is a very sad thing what happened to her; she didn’t deserve it,” one person said.

Gordon was arrested and is currently in police custody assisting with investigations.

Etwaroo leaves to mourn her seven children from another relationship.