60-year-old man broken heartedWOMAN FOUND DEAD

A presumed mentally ill woman’s body was discovered in an abandoned building at Morgan’s Bay, in Barrouallie last Wednesday, and her partner of 13 years believes that foul play was involved.

Up to press time police were still investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of 48-year-old Veronica Lewis who was found lying on her back, at about 7 a.m. by Frank “Gully” Derby who lives nearby with his girlfriend and son.{{more}}

She reportedly had blood in her nostrils.

“I went looking for my girlfriend who went to rinse out a bucket when I saw her body in the place,” explained Derby.

He said that he was scared because he thought that it was his mother.

Meanwhile a broken hearted Earl “Sardo” Sutherland, 63, said that he is convinced that the love of his life was murdered. When SEARCHLIGHT visited Sutherland at his simple wooden house at Buccament he was still struggling to come to terms with Veronica’s death.

He said that they had a great relationship but he only got worried when she drank because he claims that when she was drunk men in her hometown of Barrouallie took sexual advantage of her.

“I always trying to protect her and keep her from there, because when she gets drunk they take advantage of her,” Sutherland said.

He said that he often got into war of words with men in the area because they didn’t want him to come for her when she was intoxicated because they wanted to have their way with her.

He recalled that when she left their Buccament home last Monday, she said she was going to see her son, 31-year-old Dawson Browne in Barrouallie.

“I didn’t want her to go, I begged her not to but she didn’t listen,” a dejected Sutherland said as he sat on a chair, in his underwear, with a look of resignation plastered on his aged face.

Sutherland said that when he went to Barrouallie on Tuesday to look for Veronica, men in the area made fun of him, saying that she had left him and “those guys hiding she from you.”

“I carried a bag with clothes, a comb, grease and a panty and a pad for her because when she left she didn’t walk with anything,” Sutherland said.

He went back on Wednesday only to be greeted with the heart wrenching news that her body had been discovered.

Sutherland told SEARCHLIGHT that he knew that she “wasn’t totally well” but it didn’t bother him because from the first day he met her at a bar in Barrouallie he loved her.

He said that the men in Barrouallie didn’t like him because they felt that “Barrouallie woman is for Barrouallie man alone,”

“One fella tried to take her from me already but he didn’t get through, I loved her,” he said adding that only “the Almighty could see me through now.”

Veronica’s sister Diana said that her entire family was in shock. She said that despite Veronica’s mental disabilities and her alcohol addiction she was a very nice person.

“I spoke to her Monday evening, I saw her staggering like she was drunk, that was the last time I saw her,” Diana said as she broke down in tears.

Camilla Walters, Veronica’s niece, told SEARCHLIGHT that she loved her aunt but was always worried about her drinking habit especially considering “her illness”.

“Sometimes when she asked me for money I would rather give her something to eat so that she wouldn’t drink,” Camilla said.