Relief and joy filled the Caroni home of the Chadee family yesterday as news broke that the wheelchair-bound man suspected of killing their 19-year old daughter, Salma Chadee, was found dead. A decomposing body, believed to be that of Azad Ali, who police said was a person of interest in the murder of Chadee, was found in a bushy area near the Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba, yesterday morning.
Ali, also known as “Goat,” was also suspected of killing Sherlene Mahangoo-Charles of St Madeleine a few months before Chadee’s death. Her 14-year old daughter was also injured in the incident. A 9 mm pistol, believed to have been used to kill Chadee, was found under the body. Ali, 35, of Macaulay, Claxton Bay, had been using a wheelchair since his legs were injured in a car accident.
“Thank you, thank you,” Chadee’s mother, Waheida Khan-Chadee, said when she heard the news. Busy with the 11-month old baby left behind by her daughter, she said: “I feel light and relaxed. He deserved what he got.” She said since her daughter’s murder, life had been a nightmare for the family because the killer had escaped and was on the loose. “We were also feeling very bad because we felt responsible too,” Khan-Chadee said.
Ali, after he allegedly killed Mahangoo-Charles, was taken in by the Chadees and lived at their home for several months. On the night he killed Chadee, he was heard having an argument with her before he fired several shots at her.
constant fear
Khan-Chadee said the family had been in constant fear he would come back to their home and hurt them. Mala Chadee, Chadee’s aunt, who lived downstairs in the same house in La Paille Village, Caroni, said she would only stop being afraid when it was fully confirmed the body found was Ali’s. “It could be anybody,” she said. Mala said she was longing to get on with her life since she also had been living under fear since her niece’s killing.
“I need to be sure so I can get on with my life. I was so scared I started getting sick,” she added. Reacting to the news of Ali’s death, Kevin Mahangoo, brother of Mahangoo-Charles, said: “I feel safe now.” However, at the Ali’s family home, where they operate a bar in Claxton Bay, a man identified as one of Goat’s brother was less than welcoming. He told members of the media if his father came back and saw them there he would “cuss them up and he did not want that kind of thing in his place.”
At Stony Hill, Tarodale, where Mahangoo-Charles was killed on May 8, 2014, her brother breathed a sigh of relief yesterday. He said for the past nine months since his sister was shot and killed by the suspect who also shot and wounded her 15-year-old daughter, Kimberly Mahangoo, the family had been living in fear.