This is the second in a series
highlighting daily life of ordinary citizens in this country.
“My sister was murdered. She was
stabbed in her neck and set on fire. She was 42, the mother of two
teenagers.
“For two years I have been roaming
the streets, Charlotte Street, Nelson Street, Independence Square, looking
for her killer.
“I am obsessed with finding him. I
see people and double back to make sure I am wrong or not wrong. It haunts
me. Everywhere I go I think I see him. The desperation to find him is so
much that I can’t sleep.
“I heard of my sister’s murder one
afternoon when my older sister called and said she heard our younger sister
had died in a fire.
“Her house was completely burnt,
only part of the structure remained standing.
“The police told us they found the
remains of what appears to be a female and couldn’t identify her, because
she was burnt beyond recognition, and that they were looking for the man who
was living with her.
“We told them this man called a
neighbour on the morning of our sister’s death saying he had ‘a surprise.’
“That evening he called back,
saying: ‘You like my surprise? I kill she,’ and hung up. The police's
response was ‘OK.’
“They repeated they were looking for
him, not as a suspect, but as the last person who had seen her. We blew up a
photo of him, which the police distributed to other police stations. “That
was it. They never followed up.
“My husband went to the autopsy. I
couldn’t face it. She was charred. She had only one part of leg, a wrist was
missing, her face gone. She had buck teeth, and that was used to identify
her.
“Her teenage son is angry; daughter,
devastated.
“I know my sister lived in a
domestic situation she didn’t want us to know anything about.
“This man alienated her from her
family. He controlled her. If he saw numbers he didn’t know on her cellphone,
he would call the numbers. She had no privacy. No time.
“Wherever she went, he went. She
lost her job because he was living on the doorstep of the office on Edward
Street. He was making himself a nuisance. Her co-workers said she used to
look like she was always scared.
“He is very domineering. She had to
change her whole way of dressing; couldn’t wear make-up; couldn’t wear
jeans. If he asked her to do something it was: ‘Do it now.’
“He would make derogatory remarks to
her. One day she went to drop her niece to school. He told our mother, ‘She
gone with a man.’
“Once he locked her into his
apartment and she had to sneak out at 2 am. By 4 am he was on my mother’s
porch looking for her.
“My sister overheard him telling her
once: ‘If you leave I will hunt you down and kill you. I know your kids and
the school they go to.’
“It is heartbreaking to think he put
so much fear in her for her children’s lives that she didn’t think she could
reach out to us.
“When we tried to talk to her about
it, she said we didn’t understand and got angry. I wish I had insisted.
“For two years the police have been
telling us they are ‘still looking.’ Once they said they ‘heard’ my sister’s
perpetrator got on a boat and went on a small island. How do they know he
got on a boat? What are they not telling us?
“Look at the way they went after the
men who recently murdered a soldier. He was one of them. Unless it hits
home, the police and military do nothing for citizens. We have no faith in
99.9 per cent of the police.
“There are countries with zero
tolerance on crime where punishment is swift and brutal. Where people don’t
spend years and years waiting for justice.
“That’s the justice we need. We drag
our feet on everything
“If I see my sister’s killer I
cannot promise myself I won’t go after him. He took my sister’s life for no
reason, boasted about it, took everything from my niece and nephew.
“I have pictures of my sister at
home and I can’t look at them.
“I live in anger and grief.”
