The quiet community of Cascade has once again been thrown into shock, after an elderly couple were found chopped to death in their home yesterday. According to police reports, the bodies of 70-year-old Clive and 69-year-old Denise Commissiong, of Hillside Avenue, were discovered by their daughter around midday yesterday.
By Denyse RenneInvestigators said the couple’s daughter had gone to her relatives’ home to collect her children, who were being watched by her parents. Upon entering the house she discovered it ransacked and her parents bleeding on the floor.
The two innocent toddlers were creeping over their grand-parents’ bodies. Investigators said the stunned woman grabbed her children and ran out the house screaming. Both the police and ambulance were called in, and Denise was rushed to hospital in a semi-conscious state, but died within minutes of arriving at the Port of Spain General Hospital. Her husband was pronounced dead on the scene.
Investigating officers who arrived on the scene said they believe robbery was the motive behind the killings and that the elderly couple fought with their killers. Sources said both deceased retirees were beaten about the body and head. Several other relatives who arrived on the scene shortly after declined to speak with members of the media, saying only that they were too traumatized. Investigators were up to late last night gathering statements from residents.
It was only in 2001 that Englishman John Cropper, his mother-in-law, Maggie Lee, 83, and sister-in-law, Lynette Lithgow-Pearson, a former BBC television broadcaster, were brutally murdered at Cropper’s Mt Anne Drive, Second Avenue, Cascade, home, sometime between December 11 and 13, 2001. The three were bound with electrical wire, gagged and their throats slit.
Speaking with the Express yesterday, several residents expressed outrage over the murders. “They were really good people, polite neighbours. We are shocked and outraged that such murders have taken place here,” said a female resident, who did not want to be named. Admitting that she and her husband had been living in the area for the past 20 years, the resident said she would have to consider her family’s next move. “I cannot tell you yes or no, on whether we will be moving. I do not know,” she said.
Another resident said the last conversation he had with Clive was early yesterday morning, when Clive was going to the corner shop to purchase newspapers. “He stopped and chatted for a few minutes and left for papers, telling me he will see me later,’ the resident said. He noted that almost everyone on the street was employed while “the others are retirees who spend quality time with their grandkids”. “It is a sad day when such incidents happen to good people who work hard,” he said.
A team of investigators led by ACP Maurice Piggott and including Sen Supt John Trevajo, along with officers of the Homicide Bureau and Belmont Police Station visited the scene. Homicide officers are continuing investigations.
