A 23-year-old Barataria woman was stabbed to death by another woman after an altercation at a bar in San Juan early yesterday morning.

The victim has been identified by police as Sparkle Williams of Third Street, Barataria.

Her killing pushed the murder figure for the year to 43 with three of the recent victims being women.

They are among four murders recorded in the first four days of February.

On Friday, 17-year-old Shelly-Ann Amanda Pamponette of Peter Avenue, Valencia, was chopped to death while at her boyfriend's home in the area.

Later that afternoon, a gardener stumbled on the decomposing corpse believed to be that of a 62-year-old Trincity woman who was reported missing by relatives on January 25.

The body had a plastic bag over the head and a curtain rod around the neck.

Williams, police said, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex at Mt Hope shortly before 4 a.m. yesterday.

She was stabbed once in the right side of her neck with a knife. Up to late yesterday police were searching for a suspect in connection with the incident.

Police said earlier on Friday night, while Williams was liming at Four Roses Bar at Second Street, San Juan, she got into an argument with another woman over her (Williams's) boyfriend.

Officers said Williams may have tossed a cup containing an alcoholic beverage on the suspect.

Around 3.45 a.m. yesterday, Williams was confronted by the suspect in a carpark outside the bar and stabbed once in the right side of the neck.

As Williams slumped to the ground, the suspect quickly made her escape. Williams was later taken to hospital where she died.

A team of officers from the North Eastern Division and the Region II Homicide Bureau of Investigations which included Cpls Hezron Lynch and Woman Cpl Richardson visited the scene. Lynch is probing the incident.

Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs on Friday said even though the police were concerned about the murders rate, measures have been implemented to deal with such incidents.

Gibbs spoke with the Sunday Express on his arrival at Piarco International Airport from London, England, where he and DCP Stephen Williams were on official police business.

He said, "It's always a concern (for the police). Homicides are something we don't want to see at all. Certainly in terms of January we saw a reduction in the homicides from last year. We had 47 last year and 38 for January this year.

"There are still way too many and certainly it's a big concern for us. It is our focus from what we are doing from the policing side to see how we can reduce that number," he said.

"Certainly it's not again in anybody's best interest to see that number go higher or remain as high as it is for January," Gibbs said.