Lehigh Acres man, 68, tortured and killed at home

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally was printed in The News-Press on March 16, 2015.

A Lehigh Acres grandfather was shot and killed after being tied up with his wife, beaten and doused with bleach.

Hemchand Bhagwandin, 68, was killed during a home invasion Sunday night on Plumosa Avenue. His wife, Sabitree Bhagwandin, 66, was injured and taken to an area hospital but released later Monday.

According to the Lee County Sheriff's Office, the Bhagwandins were baby-sitting their 3-month-old granddaughter when the crime occurred. The baby was not injured. Investigators have not provided a possible motive for the attack or said whether past drug activity by probable male relatives could be connected.

"It is shocking to the community," said Chan Seelochan, 65, of Naples, a cousin of Bhagwandin. "It is very difficult for (the daughters). He was very family-oriented."

Seelochan said the family originally emigrated from India to Guyana in South America, and then relocated to the United States years ago, moving to New York, then LaBelle and finally Lehigh Acres. He said Bhagwandin was a retired auto mechanic. "He worked very hard in the cold and snow and ice up North," he said.

Bhagwandin ran an auto shop in LaBelle that his son now runs.

Seelochan, who grew up in the same house in Guyana as Bhagwandin, could not fathom what had happened to his friend.

"You come to the place for something different and then the unexpected happens," he said. "Stuff that doesn't happen in Third World countries happens here."

Seelochan said Sabitree Bhagwandin is resting at the home of one of her daughters and is "very beaten up."

Because the Lehigh grandfather used to pick up his grandchildren from the school bus daily, Selochan said other arrangements would have to be made because "I don't think they want to go back to that place."

Ironically, he said, a son of the Bhagwandins was killed 25 years ago this month in LaBelle.

Although the couple appeared to live a quiet, family-oriented life, men believed to be their relatives have extended rap sheets.

Court records show Sabitree Bhagwandin was named as a third-party custodian in a 2008 case titled "U.S.A. v. Bhagwandin." That case involved a Vishwanand Bhagwandin, who was arrested for allegedly selling cocaine between May and September of 2008. The relationship between Sabitree and Vishwanand is unclear.

Vishwanand Bhagwandin, 38, appears more than a dozen times in the Lee Clerk of Court case database, including a 1999 case for multiple counts of drug trafficking.

Another Bhagwandin, Shradhanand, was arrested in 2009 after he allegedly bought $25,000 worth of cocaine from an undercover sheriff's deputy. His 2009 cocaine arrest resulted in two felony trafficking charges.

A neighbor of the Bhagwandins on Plumosa, John Shelley, said Hemchand Bhagwandin loved riding his bike to the store for lottery tickets and would drive a golf cart to pick up his grandchildren from the bus stop.

"There were sometimes a lot of kids there," he said.

"He'd say 'Call me Hem,'" Shelley said. "He was quiet and nice and hardly anybody ever heard anything from him."

Shelley said it was "mind-boggling" that someone would do what they did to his neighbor.

"He never hurt anybody," Shelley said. The former Ohio resident said he has never been bothered in the remote Lehigh Acres location, but that he does keep a gun handy just in case. "I used to hunt in Ohio."

Shelley said that when he first saw emergency vehicles he thought Bhagwandin had had a heart attack. "Then I saw all the police and the dogs came out and we knew something was going on," he said.

"All this going on, I don't know. I really can't believe it. I worry, but you gotta keep trucking on. Maybe I'll get an alarm system. I just hope things get better; it's pretty sad."

Deputies responded to the home around 11:30 p.m., said Lt. Jeff Dektas, public information officer for the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

Dektas said the crime does not appear to be due to the victims' lifestyle, simply two grandparents watching their granddaughter.

"This is the type of crime that infuriates us at the sheriff's office," Dektas said.

Deputies continue to investigate and they are looking for multiple suspects.

Connect with breaking news reporter Michael Braun: MichaelBraunNP (Facebook), @MichaelBraunNP (Twitter) or mbraun@news-press.com. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Lehigh Acres grandfather killed, wife hurt in home invasion