THE EXECUTION OF ALICIA FOSTER

Aug 20, 2017 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

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By Michael Jordan

It was the persistent sound of the gate buzzer that alerted James Foster to the danger outside. He

had heard the gate being opened, a signal that his daughters, Alicia, 26, and her eleven-year-old sister, Marissa, had returned home after attending a wake in Bent Street on that Sunday night of October 12, 2008. He knew that Marissa was the one who was opening the gate so that Alicia could park her car in the family’s driveway at Lot 78 David Street, Kitty.
It was close to 10:00 PM, but Foster was feeling slightly feverish and decided to rest early.
Leaving his wife in the bedroom, Foster was heading for bed when he heard the persistent sound of the gate’s buzzer. The way that buzzer was being pressed told him that something was wrong.
Mr. Foster and his wife rushed to the verandah, but before they could reach they heard a loud, explosive sound.
The couple then heard their eleven-year-old daughter scream: “They shot her!”
Mr. Foster and his wife reached the verandah in time to see someone heading east along David Street with Alicia’s gold-coloured Toyota Corolla.
But something else caught their attention. Alicia lay on the southern parapet, with a gunshot wound to the right side of the face.
A mobile police patrol that was passing at the time took her to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead.
Early the following day, Alicia’s car, PHH 2263, was found near the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Well Road, North Ruimveldt. Apart from the keys, nothing else had been taken from the vehicle.
That told the police and Mr. Foster one thing: His daughter was not the victim of a random carjacking. She had been executed.
From eyewitness reports, the killers had been watching their victim for some time. They knew where she lived. They knew she had gone out that day. They were waiting for her to return home.

Some persons reportedly saw a car parked on the northern parapet of David Street, about two houses away from the Fosters residence. A man was standing near the car, while another was standing under a nearby tree.
When the two sisters arrived and while the eleven-year-old was opening the gate, one of the men, described as tall, slim, and wearing glasses, approached Alicia, who was sitting in the car. The man pointed a handgun at Alicia and ordered her to exit the vehicle.
Alicia reportedly said: “For what?” and refused to leave the vehicle.
She was reportedly heard shouting “Please don’t hold me,” when the man grabbed at her.
The gunman shot her in the head. He then dragged the mortally wounded woman out of her car and dumped her on the parapet.
The gunman and his accomplice reportedly then drove off with Alicia’s car, as well as with the other vehicle in which they had arrived. If a report by a North Ruimveldt resident is to believed, he saw Alicia’s car enter Well Road, North Ruimveldt, around 22:30 hrs that Sunday, shortly after she was slain. The vehicle stopped in front of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church and two men exited.
He claimed that the men then headed in different directions.
The day after Alicia was killed, police officials revealed that they had a possible motive.
The former student of The Bishops’ High School was a senior officer with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She was the EPA’s representative on the Board of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the National Water Council.
She had also coordinated activities on the monitoring and closure of Omai Gold Mines Limited, and had also done a considerable amount of work in the forestry and mining sectors.
From information detectives gathered, about two months before, Alicia had been threatened while investigating an alleged violation by a business entity.
But police apparently drew a blank while following that lead.

Police also arrested an individual who appeared to match the description of the man who had shot Alicia Foster. He was placed on an identification parade, but the victim’s eleven-year-old sister failed to pick him out of the lineup.
Mr. Foster says that the attack occurred on a dark night and that his daughter, Marissa, had said that she did not see the killer’s face.
To the family’s indignation, some reports attempted to link his daughter’s killing to the discovery of a quantity of arms and ammunition at a Regent Street residence.
”There were so many adverse comments, as if they were trying to murder her a second time.”

STRANGE CALL
Mr. Foster does not believe that the police have been making as great an effort as they should in finding his daughter’s killers. He disclosed that the first week after her murder, an unidentified male contacted the family by telephone.
Mr. Foster, who was out at the time, said that his young son took the call. According to Foster, the caller indicated that he knew “who had committed the act.”
The lad put the caller on hold while attempting to call another family member to the phone. However, by the time the family member came to the phone, the caller had already hung up. He never contacted the family again.
Mr. Foster said that he passed this information on to the police. “But as far as I know, no attempt was made by investigators to trace the call,” Foster says.
Mr. Foster says that the last contact that he had with the police was in December 2009, when he visited the then-Commissioner of Police, Henry Greene, to find out if there had been any progress in identifying his daughter’s killers.
“His words to me were ‘I thought you come to me with information’. He promised to get back to me, but since then, I have had no word from anyone.”
“As far as I am concerned the case has been dropped. What they have been saying is that we have not been cooperating.”
But he insists that the family has not been concealing any information from investigators.
”We are still baffled about a motive. Nothing in (my daughter’s) attitude suggested anything unusual.” According to the couple, the family is a close-knit one and Alicia would have confided in them if there was anything amiss in her life.
“The way we lived, we would have known. The relationship we shared was a very open relationship.”
The Fosters say that the memories of that October night are still almost too painful to endure.
”The thoughts that go through my mind are not happy thoughts. Every so often you relive the entire incident. Our life is not the same, and would never be the same.”

If you have any information on this case,  please contact the police.
You can also write to us at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown. We can be reached on telephone numbers: 225-8465, 225-8491 and 225-8458. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address [email protected].

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