Before attacking 66-year-old Patsy Ramcharan at the family’s home in Moruga on Sunday, the suspect and the victim were discussing plans to go to the US to spend the Christmas holidays together.

Instead, the family is now mourning the stabbing death of Ramcharan, the grandmother of six, from White Trace in St Mary’s Village.

A suspect, 38, a close female relative, has been detained by the police.

Ramcharan, the mother of three, lived in the house with her husband. The suspect had been staying with the couple.

“Earlier in the day, my mother cooked, and they were talking. They did not have any argument. They were making plans to go New Orleans for Christmas,” Ramcharan’s son Terrence Baptiste told Newsday on Monday.

Baptiste got a call about the stabbing and was told to head to the hospital.

At 1.30 pm on Sunday, neighbours were alerted by Ramcharan’s screams. On checking, they saw her gasping, with the other woman holding a knife smeared with blood nearby.

Residents gathered and pleaded with her to leave the injured woman alone.

An eyewitness recalled a female neighbour standing in the rain weeping and begging the woman with the knife to leave Ramcharan alone. The suspect did not budge. As if Ramcharan knew the danger the concerned neighbour was in, she pleaded with the neighbour not to enter the property.

With her dying breath, Ramcharan called the neighbour by name and managed to say, “Thank you.”

Other residents had gathered, and the other woman went into a room and locked the door. The police later arrested her and seized the weapon.

An eyewitness said Ramcharan had confided in someone that the suspect was taking medication for an unknown ailment. After taking the medication, she would have no recollection later of things she had done.

Ramcharan was taken to the Princes Town District Health Facility, where she died.

On Monday, several neighbours gathered at the house to offer condolences to the family.

They said Ramcharan was seen earlier in the day watering her plants.

One man said he was in church and ran straight to her home when he got the news. He saw her on a couch and prayed for her before she was taken to the hospital.

He said he was expecting her to recover and return home. But her death has left the quiet community in shock, he said.

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