A family destroyed by one night of murder...
Devika and Deoram Persaud were just 11 and 13 years old last May 11, when a band of six bandits shot dead their parents in the bedroom of their Annandale home. Nine days later, they were again the victims of another bandit attack - this time, at the home of an uncle who had taken them in after the murder of their parents.

In less than 10 days, two young children endured two brutal attacks as their parents, Ramdeo and Mahadai Persaud, were executed in cold blood and their uncle, Ramesh Persaud, was robbed. Today, they live apart from an older sibling, Rakesh, and have yet to understand the tragedy that has destroyed their family.

Stabroek News first caught up with 17-year-old Rakesh, Ramdeo's eldest son at the same home where his parents were killed. He is being taken care of by his father's youngest brother and family. But life for Rakesh has been different over this past year. A year ago, he merely "helped out" his father in the family business. Now he has the full responsibility of a job.

"Is a new life we start again without we parents... Meh sister and meh brother with meh uncle. It real bad what happen to we... It real different."

At least his younger siblings have their biological mother alive - Mahadai was their stepmother - but Rakesh is not as fortunate. His mother and father separated when he was between the age of four and six, went to Suriname and later died there. Mahadai Persaud called 'Sita' was the closest thing he had to a mother. And on the day of the double murder, the young man had just returned home with a Mother's Day gift for her.

Recalling his last moments with his parents, the young man told Stabroek News: "They [Ramdeo and Mahadai] went out and come back. The same afternoon they carried some gold [to be made into jewellery] and the same day we went and shop up for them and all of a sudden this happen to we... The whole family went home. Meh father was in a hammock and a workman was at a table gaffing. And the rest of we went inside the kitchen."

It was then that six armed and unmasked men calmly walked into the well secured yard, hit the watchman over the head and barged into the ground-floor kitchen.

All the children were ordered to lie flat and, while they were being guarded by a lone gunman, Ramdeo and Mahadai were ordered upstairs to hand over the cash and jewellery.

A short while later, several gunshots reverberated throughout the house and neighbourhood. But the young members of the Persaud family were not prepared for the scene of their dead parents.

The couple was apparently killed after they had handed over a large sum of cash to the bandits. The gunmen also escaped with one of Ramdeo's shotguns.

"One of them went with we in deh [pointing to the kitchen] and the rest of them just come and do what they had to do... go upstairs with me mother and father [then] walk out," the youth said with a faraway look in his eyes.

Rakesh said his father never kept such a large quantity of money at home, but it was a Saturday afternoon, when the proceeds of the day's sales were accumulated.

"Meh father never had that money at home, in the bank yes, [but] we have some canter [trucks] what does go around and sell and that was a Saturday afternoon... Saturday we does normally bring up the whole week money and check it up," the young man related.

While he appears to be braving the storm, Rakesh revealed that he missed a lot of things about his parents.

"How we used to have fun. The life what we can get now we ain't getting it... The life what we had with them, we can't get it now... it is a far difference. Is a new life we start again without we parents."

Ramesh Persaud... living in fear, caring for his dead brother's children

I then went some villages away to Mon Repos and it was not hard for me to see that Ramesh Persaud and his family are still haunted by the double tragedy. Everything he told me pointed to the fact that he is afraid to trust the unknown - whether it is his fellow man, or the prevailing conditions in the country. He has significantly reduced his business because he does not want to have too much money around. He sends his dead brother's children to a private school just a stone's throw away from his home and he keeps his gates well secured.

It is still too soon for him to forget that early morning on May 20, when six unmasked and armed bandits entered his Mon Repos home and carted off more than $2M in cash and jewellery.

As Stabroek News' car pulled up in front of the man's comfortable home, Ramesh cautiously stepped past, keeping wary eyes on the occupants. He only relaxed after learning who we were and exactly why we sought him out.

"It affect we a great lot. Right now, I can't even express how much it affect us. Is a lot of things what we didn't want to do, what we forced to do," were his first words. From then onwards he explained the pain of losing a brother, having to take care of his young niece and nephew and selling the family's assets for far less than they were worth.

"For instance, he [Ramdeo] had a car, a nice car what meh brother buy and we had to sell it out for next to nothing. What we gone do with them? Look," he said pointing to his own vehicles, "we got two deh, we got six truck at the back. What we gon do with them... We can't do nothing with them. We had to get rid of some of them. We had a canter that we buy for $3.5M, we sell it back for $1.4M and all because of his death. If he was around, we woulda keep them for sure, because it would be plenty of we to manage, but seeing that is me alone..."

He had initially taken in all three of Ramdeo's children, although he and his wife had two more of their own, but found the teenage Rakesh a bit too much to handle.

"He [Rakesh] ain't really hearing nobody. The father was the only one who could have control him... If we talk to he, he would show that he hear, but as soon as your back turn, he gone back to the same thing... He feel that if he come, we gon be too strict here, so he just mean to stay right there," Ramesh said.

But he said he would continue to manage with the younger ones and has even transferred them from one private school they were attending before their parents' death, to another closer to his home, all because of the current situation in the country.

Do they talk about their parents? I asked.

"Not really. If somebody says something... anything we [do], we just got them between we..." Ramesh's wife chimed in.

Nowhere to run!
The family continues to be on the alert and according to Ramesh, his business is down to 25 per cent.

"Most people you go to, like who used to buy a lot, not buying... Nobody ain't want do no big investment. Like even me, the little bit I buying to invest is to maintain house... I ain't want to go into nothing big, big," the man said, since he is afraid of being targeted again.

About a month after his brother's murder, the police shot and killed wanted man Compton Cambridge in a house on the East Coast Demerara. Cambridge was accused of robbing and murdering Ramdeo and Mahadai, but Ramesh did not appear very convinced that justice had been served.

"I don't know what to tell you, because what the police could tell you? That they kill the man that kill them [Ramdeo and Mahadai]? So who knows? Nobody knows... who knows even if it is Cambridge too? Is six of them."

And then it was deja vu when he [Ramesh] was attacked and robbed. Recalling that early morning on May 20, last year, Ramesh said he was only praying to survive so that he could flee the country but something changed his mind.

"At the time, when they [the bandits] been in the house, I was just thinking, 'Oh God, leh me life save and after this I gone. I ain't go stay here no more.' That was all what did going through my mind, but after they gone, I sit down and think over... where we gon go?"