Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

SPANISH TOWN, St. Catherine

The preliminary enquiry into the alleged murder by decapitation of a St. Catherine woman by her husband has started in the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate's Court.

Richard Duhaney, who has been accused of killing his wife Velma, listened yesterday as the victim's mother, Victoria Maxwell, told the court that she identified the headless body of her daughter on March 30 by the flat fingernail and a mark on her instep.

She told the court that she had been getting complaints from her daughter that Duhaney had been physically abusive to her. The mother told Resident Magistrate Lorna Errar Gayle that she lives in the Cayman Islands and that, on at least one occasion, Mr. Duhaney had complained to her about problems with her daughter.

Called the house

She told the court that, having heard her daughter was missing, she called the house, as Duhaney had not called her, only to hear another woman answer, telling her that her daughter was not there.

When the court asked if Duhaney had any questions to ask his mother-in-law, he said 'yes' and asked her if she could remember that he had, on many occasions, complained of having problems with his wife.

She told him that she could only recall this happening once.

The preliminary enquiry arose out of an incident where, on March 21 this year, the headless corpse of Mrs. Duhaney, a guidance counsellor, was found in bushes in Sligoville, St. Catherine. Her husband was taken into custody after the incident and he will return to court on March 14, when the enquiry is expected to continue.