Daughter’s death brings cloud of grief over family

The killing of a daughter, allegedly by her father, in the United States of America (USA) has devastated a family from Dubois in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

William Caruth, a 61-year-old man, originally from Peniston, who once taught at the Dubois Primary School, was on January 6 charged with the murder of his pregnant daughter Andrea Caruth, who is also from Peniston. Both father and daughter resided in Baychester, Bronx, USA.

It is alleged that William, after killing Andrea, busted up a concrete floor inside a closet and dumped her body into the crawlspace. He is alleged to have then placed a piece of plywood and a rug over the hole — but his cover-up efforts failed to stop the odour.

Last Wednesday, January 13, Clorene ‘Mymie’ Collis, Andrea’s mother, speaking from her Dubois home, said that her daughter’s killing dragged a cloud of grief over the family, as everyone loved the 39-year-old who was murdered while she was five months pregnant.

According to Clorene, she last spoke to her daughter via telephone on the same day she disappeared, Sunday, January 3.

“I called her and she sounded sleepy, so I asked her if she was still in bed and she said yes and I said happy belated New Year and she thanked me and said she would call me back later and she never did, but I never suspected something was wrong,” said the bereaved mother, who has cried every day since hearing of her daughter’s demise.

Clorene said that on Tuesday, January 5, one of Andrea’s brothers, who lives in the US, but was visiting SVG, came to her in Dubois and asked her when last she had heard from Andrea and she told him Sunday, around 8 o’ clock.

“He said that his father (William Caruth) had called him and told him that Angie boyfriend couldn’t find she,” recalled Clorene, who added that she didn’t think anything was wrong and believed that her daughter would turn up safe.

She said that on Wednesday, January 6, she got a call she will never forget.

“…Angie brother called me the morning (Wednesday, January 6) and said, ‘Mymie them find Angie’ and I said thank God, and he said ‘no, Mymie, them find she body, she dead’…from the time he tell me so, me let go me mouth and me bawl till day clean,” said Clorene.

Andrea, who left St Vincent and the Grenadines when she was 16, is a past student of the Dubois Government School and the Layou Technical and Vocational Centre. She will be laid to rest on Sunday, January 24, after a church service at the Vermont Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

“I feel very, very break down. That was my first child; she support the home. I have seven children and she is the bread winner for us,” said Clorene, who stressed that Andrea remembered each of her siblings’ birthdays and would send money for each one on that day.

“I feel so sad. I feel like a part of me gone. Everybody liked her. To tell you the honest truth, she was my hand and my foot and I feel like I have nothing else to live for. She was lovely,” said Clorene, crying.

She said that if she was to see Andrea’s alleged killer, she would ask him why he did it, as he was the one who took her to the USA, along with three other siblings to live with him when they were younger.

“It was his child and he took her away from everybody. He take her away from his side of family and my side of family.

“She gone away with a baby in her belly; all my other children have pickney and I would have love to see my grandchild. I’m just praying and asking God to help we and show we the way,” cried Clorene.

One of Andrea’s brothers, Keithson Collis of Peniston, stressed that he misses his sister very much, as he would usually talk to her on Sundays.

“Me love me sister very much and my mind always on her. May she rest in peace,” said Keithson, who is also the son of the alleged killer.

Another relative, Andrea’s uncle, Conley ‘Friday’ Collis, said that he cannot fathom what would make a father kill his own daughter. He said that he last saw Andrea when she came to St Vincent three years ago.

“I ain’t feel too good. I don’t know what run in that guy mind to kill his own daughter. Angie was so nice and I don’t know what happen why he have to kill her. I don’t know what kind of mind he have,” stressed Conley.

Andrea was found dead after being missing for three days. Her body was discovered in a crawl space of the basement apartment, where her father lived.

Last week Wednesday, after carrying out investigations, police arrested William, accusing him of strangling her and smashing her head.

Police sources told the New York Post that Andrea’s murder appeared to have been well-planned, because the concrete area where she was buried was hollowed out before she died.

According to NBC New York, sources say William had been stealing money from Andrea and took out a second mortgage on the home he shared with her and her boyfriend without her knowledge.

When she discovered what he had done, the day care operator confronted him, which seemingly led to the deadly confrontation.

A family friend told NBC New York that the father was a ‘very controlling, very stern, very firm man.’ They also said that the pair had a difficult relationship and there were ‘issues sometimes about money.’

As the investigation continued last week, the deceased woman’s sister, Patricia Caruth, defended her father.

‘My father is a loving man,’ Patricia told the Daily News. ‘He just wants what’s best for his children. We all get along.’

Caruth’s family and friends said she was extremely happy about the pregnancy.