Young Guyanese Mother of Two Stabbed to Death by Abusive Husband Who Later Hanged Himself
QUEENS, NEW YORK — A 26-year-old Guyanese mother of two was stabbed to death by her abusive husband on New Year’s morning, becoming New York City’s first murder victim for the year.
The man, Vinny Loknath, 46, later hanged himself in a park, some distance from their Ozone Park, Queens apartment.
The murder-suicide, which has rocked the Guyanese community in New York, took place moments after the couple had rang in the new year.
Stacy Singh, a mother of two young kids, and originally from Novar, Mahaicony in Guyana, was stabbed repeatedly in the back and left face-down in the couple’s Richmond Hill home on 103rd Avenue near 113th Street, according to reports.
A knife was found near her body when police arrived, the New York Daily News reported.
Loknath, the report said, committed suicide in Forest Park, about a mile and a half from the murder scene, sources were reported as saying. He was found hanging from a tree in the park.
Loknath “was very abusive to her,” the woman’s brother-in-law Romain Shaw, was reported by the Daily News as saying. “She stayed with him no matter what because they had two kids together. She was hoping for him to change, but he never did.”
Shaw added, “He was so drunk, so very drunk. He always beat her up when he went home high.”
A neighbour, according to the report, said the couple fought constantly, recalling one incident that ended with the battered wife leaving their home in an ambulance.
“The cops are always there,” the neighbor was quoted by the Daily News as saying. “They were always having big fights. But she still came back to him.”
The neighbor described Loknath as a construction worker often seen sitting on the front stoop of the house, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.
The couple had a 5-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter now left parentless.
Stacy “was a very sweet person,” said Shaw. “She was a very generous, caring person. She loved her children very much, spent every penny on them. They were her world.”
