Three months after La Romaine mother, Rachael Chadee, was allegedly maimed in a brutal acid and knife attack by a man, her family’s prayers were answered when police found him hiding at his sister’s home yesterday.
When the Southern Division Task Force, CID and Canine Unit stormed the house in Palmyra Village, Princes Town, 39-year-old La Romaine labourer, Roger Bissoon, who had been on the run since police issued a warrant for his arrest, was found in a bedroom hiding between a mattress and a bed frame.
After working through the night to gather information, the officers, including ASP Rawle Ramdeo, Insp Don Gajadhar, Sgt Dale Ramroop, Sgt Inshan Teeluck, Sgt Roland Ramlogan, PC Harricharan and PC Moses, entered the house around 5.45 am and met the suspect’s sister and brother-in-law. They were detained while officers searched the rest of the house and found the suspect.
Investigators said there was a mattress in a porch where Bissoon also slept in case police came looking for him, so he could easily get away. The suspect and his relatives were then taken to the Ste Madeleine Police Station and questioned. The suspect’s relatives are expected to be charged with harbouring a criminal.
Bissoon was later taken to the San Fernando CID for processing and was to be charged with attempted murder.
On February 22, Chadee, 35, a mother of three, was at her mother’s home when a man climbed through a kitchen window and dragged her into a room.
With her mother, Leela, and the children screaming, he locked the door and forced acid down her throat. He also cut her face and doused her with the acid. On hearing Chadee’s screams, Leela ran to neighbours for help but by the time they arrived the suspect had already left.
Chadee spent weeks at the San Fernando General Hospital nursing burns to her face, stomach and back. She is still unable to speak because of damage done to her throat by the acid.
Six weeks after being released from hospital, she also had to return to hospital for surgery as her back was still in a bad condition.
Speaking by telephone yesterday, Leela praised God, saying she had been praying everyday for the suspect’s capture. Now she is counting the days when her daughter can leave police protection and reunite with her children. She said it had been a frightening three months for her and the children, as their lives had been threatened.
“l feel very good now because I kept praying and praying everyday that they would hold him and God answered my prayer. I am so glad and I will have to thank God for that,” Leela said.
It has been hard for Chadee’s children, she said, as the only time they got to see their mother was when she went to the hospital for treatment. Leela said the children kept asking when their mother would return home and now it seemed it could be sooner than later.
“Where there is hope there is a way. God does not sleep. I prayed everyday that they would hold him because of what he did to my child. No matter what a woman does, a man has no right to do that,” she added.