A newlywed and her cousin were convicted of scalping the woman’s husband and leaving him for dead on a South American beach in a sinister bid to collect his life insurance.
Hemwattie Abdulla, 41, who is known as Annie, and her cousin, Seerojnie Permaul, were accused of plotting to kill Abdulla’s husband, a New York City cab driver, on a trip back to their native country of Guyana back in 2012.
Husband Abdool Shakeel Majid’s battered, lifeless was found dead on a beach with his scalp missing in April after he and his wife, whom he had married just four months earlier, had travelled home for a two week holiday.
After he had gone missing, Abdulla returned to New York where she told relatives that her husband had remained in South America for a few days longer while she came back to the U.S. to tend to her daughter who had broken her arm.
But while she was back in the U.S., investigators discovered blood in the trunk of the car the couple had rented as well as Abdulla’s driver’s license. They called her back to Guyana to identify Majid’s body, but arrested her when she arrived at the police station.
Authorities said that after getting married, Majid had taken out a sizeable life insurance policy.
Abdulla admitted to police that she had paid another Permaul $5,000 to help her kill her husband, but said it was because he regularly beat her and she was desperate to get out of the marriage.
The two women face life in prison when they are sentenced at the end of March.