Man on the run after setting wife’s house on fire
Up to press time yesterday, the police were trying to locate a man, who allegedly tried to kill his 38-year-old partner before setting her Lot 182 Da Silva Street, Newtown, home on fire around 21:30 hrs on Tuesday.
The fire not only destroyed June Cato Jervis’s home but it damaged her neighbour, Adunni Orderson’s house which is located at Lot 182 Da Silva and D’Abreu Streets.
The suspect has been identified as Kerwin Jervis. He was reportedly physically abusing his wife Tuesday night—just before he allegedly set the house on fire.
Kaieteur News was informed that the suspect reportedly stabbed his wife and then set the house on fire. The woman reportedly managed to escape just after her husband ran out. Neighbours reportedly told the police that they saw the woman with her bloody clothes.
Reports are that she was taken to the hospital for treatment but the police were unable to locate her at the hospital yesterday. “We look everywhere but we couldn’t find her,” a police source said.
The victim’s brother, who asked for his name to be withheld, said that he was heading home from church when he received information that his sibling’s home was on fire. The property is owned by him and his sister but Jervis has been living there.
The sibling said that he went to the scene of the fire, hoping that he would have seen his sister but did not. He got information that she was taken to the hospital but when he got there; his sister was not a patient there.
He even received information that the mother of two died as a result of her injuries but could not confirm the news. “Her children’s father was here looking for the two boys but no one has any idea where they are,” the brother said.
Neighbours yesterday claimed that the woman was a victim of constant domestic violence. “He (suspect) does beat her a lot. Almost every day he beating her and neighbours cannot intervene because she does turn back and curse them.”
Anyone with information on the victim’s whereabouts is asked to contact the nearest police station.
Meanwhile, Orderson, who has been living at the property for the past 42 years, said that she was asleep when she heard her children screaming. “I heard the children screaming for me and I started screaming myself.”
Orderson said that it was only when she got out of her bedroom that she realized that her neighbour’s house was on fire.
“It was confusion. I had to run in back to get my baby and then we had to jump the fence because we weren’t finding the gate keys.”
The lower flat of Orderson’s home was not destroyed.