Plastic City teen murder…Stepfather, 63, captured at Vreed-en-Hoop

Apr 26, 2013 News

The hunt for the 63-year-old man who allegedly stabbed his 14-year-old stepdaughter to death in Plastic City, Vreed-en-Hoop on Wednesday night, ended dramatically at around 19:45 hrs yesterday, with residents capturing the suspect a few metres from the slain girl’s home.

Dead: Fenella Samuela

Randolph Josiah was captured after a brief chase that began on the Vreed-en-Hoop Public Road, near a roadway leading to the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
A female resident told Kaieteur News that a group of boys who were walking along the public road spotted Josiah attempting to flag down passing vehicles, apparently with the intention of heading further up the West Coast of Demerara.
They immediately raised an alarm, which caused the apparently panic-stricken suspect to begin running in the centre of the roadway with the boys and several other residents in hot pursuit.
The woman said that she immediately went to the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station to alert the ranks. By the time she returned with the policemen one of the residents had apprehended the alleged killer and had subdued him on the ground.
Kaieteur News understands that some incensed residents inflicted a thrashing on the suspect before handing him over to the lawmen, who escorted him to the station.
Earlier in the day, several Plastic City residents had expressed apprehension that the alleged killer was still in the area. This fear had escalated after a female cousin of the slain teen revealed that Josiah used a stolen cell phone to issue death threats to her.
Some relatives of the suspect had described the former Amelia’s Ward, Linden resident, as a dangerous individual who was charged for allegedly murdering another woman some years ago.
Fenella Samuels, a student of Vreed-en-Hoop Secondary, was stabbed at least 15 times with a kitchen knife at around 20:00 hrs Wednesday, after the suspect cornered her in a room at her mother’s home.
Her mother, Donna Rose, was slashed on the left arm when she attempted to intervene. The wound required 15 stitches.
Police in a statement said that the teen was fatally stabbed by her stepfather during a family misunderstanding.
Mildred Rose, the mother, said that the trouble started at around 17:00 hrs when Fenella came home and told her that a boy had snatched her phone from her nine-year-old brother.

Mildred Rose, the injured mother

The woman said that she accompanied her daughter and small son to the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station. Ms. Rose said that she returned home and she attempted to comfort her still-upset daughter.
“I tell her ‘don’t fret, you will get back your phone,’ and he (the stepfather) start arguing and calling her ‘whore and cross.’
The mother said that her daughter retorted by telling the suspect that he was a murderer. To this, Fenella’s stepfather reportedly said: ‘I gun show you what is murder.’
Kaieteur News was told that the suspect then threw a kerosene stove at his stepdaughter, but it missed her. He then used a stool to block one of the doors.
The mother said that the teen then attempted to go through the front door but her stepfather slapped her. Kaieteur News was told that the schoolgirl then rushed into the bedroom and picked up a hammer, but her mother took it away.
The woman said that her husband then picked up a long kitchen knife from a wall divider and rushed at his stepdaughter.
“I put out my hand to block he and he slash my hand and then he go in the room and start to bore she,” the woman said. All I could do was pick up my son and run (from the house).”
According to the mother, she ran onto a dam while screaming for help, but no one came. She then ran to the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station.
By the time she returned with police, her daughter had been taken to the hospital.
A teenaged neighbour said that he and others heard the screams and ventured into the home.
Fenella was lying on the bed and groaning. There was lots of blood.