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The mystery of the strangled footballer
By Michael Jordan He was walking down Regent Street in mid-February of 1996 when he spotted his old ‘squaddie’- his friend from his stint in the military; the guy that the cops believed had helped to kill Michelle Jules. Who was Michelle Jules? She was the 17-year-od girl that they found tied-up in a bag at the bottom of Victory Valley hill. Some cynical Linden folk feel that they should have left Victory Valley with its old name—the Valley of Tears, as it was called back then in the really bad days; when the marauding ‘Nacet gang’, with guys like ‘Poison’ and the Beckles brothers went around raping and slashing couples with razor blades.
Michelle Jules
They’re all dead now, but what happened that day 18 years ago isn’t something that those of that era will soon forget. On January 2, 1996, Michelle Jules, a member of Guyana’s female football team, left her home at One Mile, Wismar, after informing her relatives that she was going for a walk. She failed to return. Six days later, residents of Victory Valley became aware of a stench emanating from a bushy area at the bottom of the hill. On investigating, they discovered that the stench was coming from a black jute bag, which was covered with a haversack. Beneath that haversack was the decomposing body of Michelle Jules.
The teen’s hands were tied behind her back, her legs were also bound and there were signs of sexual assault. Her forehead had also been bashed in, but an autopsy revealed that she had been strangled. The day after the body was found, detectives picked up three suspects. They were an elder from a spiritualist church in Victory Valley, another male accomplice, and a woman. The detectives had received information that Jules had visited the elder’s church just before she disappeared. Some suggested that the teen was a victim of a spiritualist ritual. They also received information which suggested that a third man who attended the church, and lived at Linden, had participated in the killing. The man was also an ex-soldier and former member of the Guyana National Service. One of the people that the detectives spoke to happened to be a ‘squaddie’ of the suspect. From what he recollected of the ex-soldier, the suspect was indeed capable of such an act. The friend made a mental note of this information. As fate would have it, the man was walking down Regent Street about a month later when he spotted the ex-soldier heading towards him. The men passed each other and the friend immediately rushed into a store to contact the police. However, by the time the ranks arrived, the suspect was nowhere to be seen. About a week later, the man again spotted the suspect entering a minibus near the Stabroek Car Park near Demico. He again contacted the police, and this time around they arrived in time to arrest the suspect. However, under interrogation, the ex-soldier denied that he had murdered Jules. Police were unable to find enough evidence to prosecute the man or any of the other suspects and eventually released them. The man encountered the suspect on several occasions following the previous two. Of course, they were no longer friends, and the suspect repeatedly made threats against his life. Close friends and even relatives of the victim declined to provide any information that could explain how Michelle Jules ended up dead in a jute bag in the valley of tears. If you have any information about this unusual case, please contact us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street office or by telephone. We can be reached on telephone numbers 22-58458, 22-58465, 22-58473 or 22-58491. You need not disclose your identity. You can also contact
Michael Jordan at his email address [email protected].
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