He was murdered a few metres away from the house in which he lived, his wife, Ishwadai Budhai, 50, told the Guyana Chronicle yesterday.

She said her husband’s life was snuffed out about 20:00 h when she was unaware of the attack.

It happened after they had closed their grocery and the 54-year-old shopkeeper had gone, as usual, to dispose of the garbage by burning.

When he failed to go back to their two-storeyed house 10 minutes later, she went in search and called out to him.

She said she got no answer and, suspecting that something was amiss, ran back into the bottom flat of their home, locked the door and telephoned two neighbours.

The grieving widow said she asked two young men from the village, who were at the street corner, to help look for her husband.

“They told me they did not see him and I came downstairs with them and took a torchlight and went to the backyard and saw him lying on the ground,” she cried yesterday.

Neighbours told the Guyana Chronicle they did not hear any screams nor see anyone in the Budhais’ yard that night and the dead man’s wife said they had no problems with anyone.

She speculated that someone was trying to rob the business but her husband put up a fight and botched the attempt.

At the scene where the corpse was found, the ground had been disturbed and several ochro trees were broken in the kitchen garden. Footprints were visible, as well, under a banana tree and the businessman is suspected to have been strangled by an attacker with whom he was familiar.

Police said, in a press release, that Budhai died between 20:00 h and 20:30 h Thursday and was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

His body is at a city mortuary awaiting a post mortem examination.

Budhai is also survived by two children and grandchildren. (MICHEL OUTRIDGE)