Latest update December 24th, 2024 12:12 AM
Man stabbed stepdaughter 21 times
-was jailed for attempted murder of one woman, remanded for wounding two others
Fourteen-year-old Fenella Samuels’ killer stabbed her 21 times to practically every part of her body and prison officials confirmed yesterday that the suspect, Randolph Josiah, who is also her stepfather, was jailed once, and remanded twice for brutal attacks on other women.
Murder suspect Randolph Josiah
The extent of the teen’s injuries was revealed during a post mortem yesterday.
The sight of the gaping wounds on the schoolgirl’s neck, chest, back and legs left even some veteran investigators horrified.
Kaieteur News was told that the wounds, reportedly inflicted with a large kitchen knife, damaged practically every vital organ.
“There was stab wound after stab wound; she was hacked to pieces; I got tired of counting,” a source who witnessed the postmortem told Kaieteur News.
“The arteries in her neck were severed; her heart, liver and lungs were perforated. This guy was crazy. This had to be (an act of) spite. This could not be just a guy quarreling over a (stolen) cell phone. This had to be a crime of passion.”
Josiah is likely to be charged on Monday. Prison officials have confirmed that he was previously incarcerated for three other brutal attacks on women. All the victims were reportedly stabbed.
Kaieteur News was told that the former Amelia’s Ward, Linden resident was jailed for ten years around 1991 for the attempted murder of a woman. He was also twice remanded, but later freed, after he allegedly stabbed two other women.
Samuels, a student of Vreed-en-Hoop Secondary, was stabbed to death around 20:00 hrs Wednesday during a quarrel with her stepfather, who allegedly cornered her in a bedroom at the family’s home, located in the West Coast Demerara squatting area known as Plastic City.
Her mother, Donna Rose, was slashed on the left arm when she attempted to intervene. The wound required 15 stitches.
Josiah fled the scene but was apprehended Thursday night by residents who spotted him attempting to flag down passing vehicles on the Vreed-en-Hoop public road.
The slain girl’s mother alleged that her husband had become incensed and had begun to verbally abuse Fenella after the teen informed them that a boy had stolen her cell phone.
But she also said that the girl’s stepfather became further incensed after his stepdaughter called him a murderer and accused him of previous abuse.
Murder victim Fenella Samuels
The woman told Kaieteur News on Thursday that while her spouse had hinted at his violent past, particularly during arguments, he had never physically abused her. But she did say that her daughter had complained about her stepfather’s behaviour about three years ago when the family was staying at Linden.
She said that after receiving the complaints, she had sent her daughter to live with other relatives.
Even some of Josiah’s close relatives had not expressed surprise when they heard that he was implicated in a murder.
“I was not surprised. I would not put it above him,” one relative said.
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