The bizarre murders of the Grove quartet

By Danielle Campbell

When Rita Ramlagan decided to check on her daughter and grandchildren in August 2006, she never believed that anything amiss had befallen them.
The woman had gone to the Lot 102 Grove Public Road, East Bank Demerara property where her daughter, 43-year-old Danmattie Kayman had been staying with an elderly gentleman.
The man, Fred Looknauth, had taken Kayman, her seven-year-old daughter Alicia Kirkpatrick and three-year-old son, Melville Kayman in after they were evicted and had nowhere else to go.
Kayman’s mother recalled that when she called for her daughter from outside the house, a woman came up and said Kayman had gone out with her daughter.
Ramlagan said as was normal when she visited, she never entered the property, but from where she stood, she could hear little Melville Kayman crying inside.
She recalled that the woman was carrying a bottle of drink, a pack of cigarettes and a packet of crackers, but she could not see the woman’s face, since she had come up from behind.
Two days later, Kayman was found in the bedroom naked with a sheet covering her face; the caretaker, Looknauth, was discovered in the passageway leading to the bathroom in the upper flat of the building, and the bodies of Kayman’s children were found in the incomplete bottom flat of the house.
Police discovered that Kirkpatrick was also found naked and her legs were broken, and little Melville was lying next to her.
A post-mortem soon found that Kayman died of strangulation while her children and Looknauth died of cerebral haemorrhage and appeared to have been beaten in the head.
Neighbours began to speculate that whoever committed the murders might have done so over the weekend when there was a heavy downpour accompanied by heavy lightning and thunderstorms.
However, relatives of Looknauth revealed that his grandson reported seeing him alive on the Sunday afternoon in the hammock of his verandah.
After the discovery, police began hunting a woman who neighbours said would always claim to “look after” the man and the two children.

Allegation

Another woman, who had previously stayed at the house, turned up and told investigators that a man who had stayed at the house had issued death threats.
The woman, who asked police not to reveal her identity for fear of reprisal, also told Kayman’s sister that she was forced to move out of the Grove home after constant conflict with the man.
She told them that she was fearful for her life after the man threatened Kayman with a handgun because he claimed she was telling people that he was involved in nefarious activities.
The woman said she had earlier received a message that the man wanted to see her and had asked that she drop by the Grove house, but said she failed to turn up.
According to the woman, the man is a deportee from Cayenne and his lover, who also stayed at the house where the murders were committed, was well-known in the community. She said they were all friends and used to drink alcohol together in the house.
She said Looknauth used to receive a monthly allowance from his son who resides overseas and had taken Kayman and her children to live with him after she was evicted from her home in Kaneville.
The woman added that Kayman had a substantial amount of cash which she had been saving for a planned trip to seek employment in Puerto Rico.
Relatives said the bag in which Kayman usually kept her important documents and money was not found in the house.
Looknauth’s daughter, Elaine Ramrattan said her father’s body was so decomposed that it was impossible to accord him full final rites as he could not even have been dressed.