Slaying of broom vendors…A change of heart might have saved two lives

By Danielle Campbell

Some people refer to it as intuition. Some say it is all about God’s providence and guidance, but what Nadira Tulsie and her husband know for sure is that whatever it was that stopped them from going out that day; definitely saved their lives. Tulsie and her husband, of Port Mourant, Corentyne, had gone before to the backlands to make brooms along with her aunt, Florry Papiah, Papiah’s friend, Jennifer Pooran and a 21-year-old cousin, Deodat Persaud.

But on September 29, 2012, Tulsie decided against going with the women after her husband was called out to work. “My husband and I went with them to strip the brooms the last time and we were supposed to go back on that day, but my husband had to work so he said that he would make more money at his job than on the brooms,” Tulsie said.
The bodies of Papiah, 33 and Pooran, 19, were later discovered under some branches with deep incise wounds. A cutlass purported used in the attack was found buried near Papiah’s body.
The women, who lived together at Miss Phoebe, Port Mourant, had gone with Persaud to the Adventure backlands to cut coconut branches for the purpose of making brooms.
Tulsie said Papiah, who lived with her two daughters, Shivanie, 15, and Anita,13, had taken in both Pooran and Persaud after they had nowhere else to go. She revealed that after Persaud’s mother died, he began smoking and had sold out his inheritance to buy drugs.
Despite this fact, Papiah took Persaud to live with her and had incorporated him into her broom-vending business. On the day of the incident, Tuslie saw another aunt, Joan, and informed her that the women were missing and that Persaud had claimed he had barely escaped from some men who had attacked and robbed the women.
“He said he ran away and left them and so I called my husband to help look for the women and verify the boy’s story.” However, during the course of the day, Persaud consumed a noxious substance after he realised his story did not add up and the police were closing in on him.
Persaud had informed the police to peruse the contents of his cellular phone which was in the care of his grandmother if they were interested in finding out what really happened to the women. Tulsie said Persaud’s phone had fallen from his grasp while he was hospitalised, causing his grandmother to take possession of it.
He had made a video recording on his phone confessing to the entire incident. In the recording, Persaud said he loved his wife and child, but they were not interested in his well-being and that “nobody liked him”. Persaud said he was incensed by the fact that Pooran would often intervene during arguments with his aunt and admitted that he killed the women after a dispute over the division of profits.
Papiah had accused Persaud of selling the brooms and converting some of the proceeds to his own use. According to family members, Persaud also acknowledged that he had planned the murders; killing his aunt first before turning on her terrified friend. “He used to smoke a lot and was using drugs. Nobody expected that he would do something like that. The two women were good friends and his mother had died so we never put him out.”
Tulsie explained that Papiah’s children who attend the lower Corentyne Secondary School are now living with their grandmother, Kerali Papiah. The grandmother has since been ill because of the memories and the children cry all the time for their mom, relatives say.
“She was a really nice person, very generous and good- natured. She doesn’t hold malice against anyone and she liked to help people.” Tulsie said her husband would never have allowed Persaud to kill the women if they had gone to the Adventure backlands on that fateful day.