A young Stanleytown woman, who was kidnapped on Friday night, escaped early yesterday morning after a weekend of terror which started with the brutal slaying of her father.

Neil Bovell, wanted in relation to an unrelated murder case and in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Bernard’s father is still at large.

Velda Bernard, 22, ran through the bushes at the break of dawn and sat in the middle of the West Bank Demerara main road until a driver stopped and took her to the Wales Police Station.

Her arrival saw armed policemen rushing back to the busy area where she was held, in search of her kidnapper. By then he had already fled only to be caught later.

Bernard was reunited with her family at around 11 am. It was an emotional scene with her fainting as she recalled her ordeal.

She was later taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital and released.

The young woman kept crying and calling out for her father who was murdered and whose body was left to burn in the family’s two-bedroom home set alight by her kidnapper.

Early Saturday morning the family’s life was changed forever by a man many describe as a monster and a lunatic who burnt the family home, murdered Vernon Bernard, and kidnapped his daughter.

The woman told her relatives how she had watched as the man dismembered her father’s body after he had died.

She said when she arrived home at around 11:30 on Friday night and saw the house in darkness, she immediately knew something was wrong. She rushed into the house and started calling out for her father and it was then the man, who was apparently waiting, went in behind her and told her that her father was dead.

At first she did not believe him and continued calling for her father but he then took her outside where he showed her the body. He then asked for her mother saying he knew that they usually travelled home together in the night and that he had planned to end her life also.

According to Bernard, the wanted man, who has been roaming the area since he murdered his reputed wife in the city about two and a half months ago, described how he had murdered her father. He told her that it was around midday on Friday when he entered their yard and saw her father. The man said that he waited at the back step until Bernard had finished his work and had entered the house. He started to chop him in the face and body.

“He told me that Daddy play dead and he went to chop him again but Daddy raise up and told him he killed him innocently but if he did anything to his daughter he would haunt him for the rest of his life...” the young woman said between sobs.

After showing the man’s daughter his body, the kidnapper then proceeded to dismember it.

After taking the badly mutilated body into the house, the man made known his intention to burn the home down and the young woman begged him to go inside to get her passport, identification card and birth certificate. He allowed her to do this asking her for money but she told him that she had none. “That is all I could have saved Mommy, I am sorry,” the young woman said sobbing.

From all indications the $470,000 that her mother, Dorothy Bernard had in her home went up in flames.

After torching the house, the man tied her up and walked her through Stanleytown before moving into the bushes. He later ended up at a dam in La Retraite, a village next to Stanleytown. The dam is said to be situated on a farm.

The woman said that before getting to the dam the man cleared away some bushes for them to sleep and the next morning he continued his trip.

“He tell me about all the different murders he did and how they happened, all three, I had to probe to get me father own out of him, though,” the woman said. The man had murdered another woman some years ago.

“I don’t know is what kind of farm he had me on, but they [residents] ent frighten him because they give him food readily, them ent frighten nobody because they know he could shield them and protect them if anything happen... I telling you people know where he is, he tell me personally he would get off if police find he now foh the murder of his reputed wife. But not my father’s own because he know I see.”

She said the man offered her some food which she refused but she drank some water since she was dehydrated. The man did not check her haversack so he was unaware that she had a cellular phone.

It was yesterday he untied the young woman and when he moved away to relieve himself she made three calls to her relatives’ home in Plaisance just to inform them that she was alive.

She said that her kidnapper had no idea that they were in the backdam searching for her and she was forced to keep her phone on mute since she did not want to alert him that she had one. The young woman said that after the man untied her she was tempted to escape during the night but was afraid that she might get lost in the darkness.

He was snoring early yesterday morning when she escaped and ran out to the main road. She held on to the driver and begged him to take her to Stanleytown but he took her to the police station where a call was made to her mother informing her that she had escaped.

Family members were angry that some residents were still assisting the man after all he had done.

“I don’t know how deh could do that, but anyway the blood of Jesus is on Velda and I thank the Lord that she is okay,” said one family member. Students and teachers from the Tucville Secondary School, where the young woman is a teacher, rushed to the Wales Police Station, but were unable to see her since she was still with the police at the hospital. The young woman is also a student at the Government Technical Institute, (GTI).

Other than the murder of his reputed wife, Philippa Harrison, and the acts on Saturday and over the weekend, Bovell is also wanted for the kidnapping of another woman. He is a relative of Vernon Bernard, with whom he had a dispute some years ago.