A professional single mother who lived in a residential Kings Park neighbourhood last night became the latest victim of the new brand of crime – home invasion.
Sandra Ruiz, 39, of #5664 Meighan Avenue, was raped and murdered by a single intruder, and the brutal crime was witnessed by her two young daughters, one eight and the other thirteen.
Police reported that Sandra, 39, an engineer employed by Esso, died around 10:45 p.m. yesterday at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital’s trauma room after being bludgeoned with a hammer. Her youngest daughter, Ana Ruiz, lies in intensive care in the Universal Health Services Hospital in a critical but stable condition, with two cut wounds in the center of her head.
Nadia, Sandra’s 13-year-old daughter, is severely traumatized after witnessing the attack on her mother from the bathroom, where she ran to hide. She later ran into the street, screaming for help. Her mental condition is such that she cannot even be questioned by police as yet.
At the KHMH morgue, Amandala met a brother of Sandra Ruiz, Miguel Ruiz, 42, who had gone to the morgue for his sister’s post-mortem this afternoon.
Miguel said that he did not know what happened at his sister’s house last night. “My older niece is the only one who was there, but she is in a state of shock and we really don’t want to question her,” he said.
Whoever invaded the Ruiz’s home, apparently gained entrance from the front door, Miguel Ruiz told us.
“Presently, it seems like it was only one person,” he said.
“Initial investigation revealed that at about 10:30 p.m., Mrs. Ruiz and Ana were watching television in a bedroom, whilst her [other] daughter was in the bathroom, when a dark skin man with Afro-like hair, dressed in full white, entered the house. During the incident, Nadia heard the noise and peeped from the bathroom door and saw her mother struggling with the man. She locked herself in the bathroom and waited for a few minutes until she did not hear any more noise, then ran out to seek assistance,” said a police report.
The first inkling that something unusual was going on in the Ruiz home was when a close neighbor, who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity, heard a loud scream.
“I was asleep after 10:00 p.m. I heard a loud scream from my neighbor’s house. I heard another loud scream and I saw one of the children run out of the house, screaming ‘Dem kill mi ma. Dem kill mi ma.’
“Then I saw a man from across the street with a machete. I was standing on my verandah. He said to me that someone was trying to thief. I saw him go over to the Ruiz house. I was still on my verandah looking. Then I went across there (to the Ruiz house). I asked the little girl what had happened. She said that they went with my mother’s purse.
“When I got into the house, Sandra Ruiz was lying with her face up. And this man from across the street was there also. I told him that we should take her to the hospital. She was still alive, but was unresponsive. Her face was covered in blood. She had an injury to the back of her head. She had on no underwear. All she had on was a green T-shirt.”
Another neighbor, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that she, too, heard the scream. But she did not pay any attention to it, because their (the Ruiz’s) dog was not barking or acting like something strange was happening. “I heard their gate open and slam,” she said.
Sandra Ruiz lived on Meighan Avenue with her two children. She was married to a man who resides in Germany.
A police investigator, who was at the Ruiz house, told Amandala todaythat the police have one suspect in custody. They suspect that the motive was robbery.