A former staff of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council was on Wednesday morning found dead in the bedroom of her North Ruimveldt, Georgetown home.
Joyce Lewis, 75, of Lot 3630 Christiani Street, North Ruimveldt, is suspected to have been robbed, raped and strangled.
Relatives of the woman broke down as her body was being removed from her residence by undertakers.
The woman’s lifeless body was discovered about 08:30h by a sister, who went to the house after she failed to make telephone contact with the woman.
She was found lying on her back with her underwear to her knees and blood oozing from her mouth and nostrils. Her hands and feet were bound. There was a broken glass window at the back of the house, but due to the grill, it was impossible for the perpetrators to enter the premises.
The police are working with the theory that the perpetrators may have gotten access into the house via a bedroom window in the upper flat of the house since there were several footprints on the white paint.
The house was ransacked and a cutlass wrapped in a piece of cloth was also recovered by investigators at the house. When Guyana Times International arrived at the scene, relative were barred from entering the yard as police ranks were conducting their investigations.
A young man, Shane Willis told GTI that one of the woman’s relatives contacted his mother and asked for him to check on the woman, claiming that they were not getting onto her via telephone.
He said that as he arrived at the woman’s home, he saw the dead woman’s sister in the yard in a state of uneasiness. “When she saw me, she asked me to jump the fence as she was crying out ‘like they kill her,’”.
Willis said as he jumped into the yard, he saw the cutlass wrapped in the cloth lying next to the door with a bunch of keys, and as such, he hurriedly made his way home and informed his mother, who in turn contacted the woman’s relatives.
Gruesome discovery
The police were summoned and as they made their way into the house, they discovered the house ransacked and the woman’s body on the floor. “They tie up she hand and feet and blood de coming out she mouth and nose.”
Yvonne (only name given), a close friend of Lewis stated that she last spoke to the woman after midnight on Tuesday and they had plans to go shopping the following day.
No answer
The woman further added that she retired to bed, but upon waking on Wednesday morning, she tried to make contact with the woman on her telephone, but there was no answer.
“This is unusual because as soon as the telephone rings, she would answer and if she sees a missed call, she would return the call. So I telephone a relative in the area to check on her and that was when the young man went across.”
Lewis normally lived alone and has no children. Two of her siblings live overseas while another live in Guyana.
