The Phoenix grandfather who slit his wife’s throat has explained why, saying he could no longer care for his bedridden wife whom he described as “large.”
He explained that the first attempt at the crime was pillow-assisted suffocation. That plan failed, so he fetched a large kitchen knife and cut her throat.
Shortly after killing his wife Dhunalutchmee, 69, Dickson Naidoo, 64, went to the police station to report his crime. A day later, he confessed to the crime in front of a judge at the Verulam Magistrate’s Court.
According to sources close to the investigations, Naidoo described her as a large woman and said that he had been struggling to pick her up or bath her.
“He said he would bath and feed her but with his frail state, he could no longer perform the duties. He said he had no additional support and was left to care for her on his own. He was fed up,” a source said.
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The wife had an un-diagnosed condition that rendered her bedridden. The couple lived in a rental flat at Landbury Place in Eastbury.
The couple had a deceased son and a daughter who was on the run from the police for theft. “the only way to end his pain was to kill his wife.” the source added,
Neighbors discovered the body of the dead woman in bed covered in blood.
“They were both lovely people but you could see taking care of Dhunalutchmee was taking its toll on him,” Yvonne Chetty, a neighbor who had just helped Naidoo place his wife in frail care last week, said.
Chetty went on to explain that, “He wanted her to go for treatment to hospital but she refused. She only wanted him to care for her.” She also claimed that Naidoo had asked for her help to fill forms for a nursing home. However, because her condition was undiagnosed, the home refused to accommodate her.
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“He did everything for her from cooking and cleaning to feeding and bathing her. He sought help from his family but nobody could assist him. On some days he would just come to our home and cry because he felt abandoned and helpless.”
“He told me he was going to the Phoenix Plaza and closed my gate. As he walked up my stairs to the road I heard him tell someone on the phone he had slit her throat,” Yvonne claimed. So she screamed for help.
“The neighbor went to the house and pulled back a curtain via an open window only to find Dhunalutchmee was dead. She had a deep wound across her neck and there was blood everywhere.”
Chetty expressed her shock at the act saying “I’ve known him for so many years. He loved her, and she loved him. They only had each other, but he could not cope with the stress.”
According to Chetty, the son died of cancer, and no one knew where their daughter was.
The families of both the husband and the wife were not keen on commenting on the matter.
According to the police spokesperson, Nqobile Gwala, the police are treating this as a murder case and investigations are ongoing.
