Who killed Ann Stewart? Family, friends seek to have 41-year-old cold case reopened

Mar 26, 2018 News

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By Michael Jordan

Thirteen- year-old Mark Parris picked up his girlfriend, 14-year-old Sandra Ann Stewart near the Parade Ground, where she’d gone to practice for an upcoming basketball tournament.
He then towed her on his mom’s bicycle from the Parade Ground to South Tucville, where they both lived.
He stopped in the vicinity of the bridge that divides Tucville and East La Penitence, and watched her head to her home in Critchlow Street, just a few hundred yards away.
The next day, Mark Parris learned that Ann had never made it home. Someone had apparently grabbed the teen as she walked along the street.
The assailant had sexually assaulted her, broken her neck, and then propped her up against a chain-link fence in an alley behind her parents’ residence.
That murder happened on the night of December 9, 1976. Although a detective who questioned a neighbour, remains convinced he committed the act, Ann’s killer was never caught.
But following a recent Kaieteur News feature on Ann’s un

solved murder, some of Ann Stewart’s relatives and friends are hoping that police reopen the case.
One such relative is Ann’s younger sister, Rosamund Knights Neptune. She was just nine when Ann was killed.
“We were very close and ever so often I would still have dreams of her,” Mrs. Neptune, who resides overseas, told Kaieteur News. “She was my protector, tormentor, best friend all rolled up in one.
“I never remember anyone coming to me and asking me any questions (back then). Maybe there was something at the time that I could have helped with. I keep going over in my mind, trying to remember that time.”
Now in his fifties and with children of his own, Mark Parris, also living overseas, still thinks about his murdered teenage girl.
“It bothers me. It is not something that would go away.
Parris said that he still has a post-card that Ann had given him. He says he is willing to return to give evidence on the tragic events of that night, once the case is reopened.
Ann’s former boyfriend also wants to set the record straight about one thing. He emphatically denies that he was present when Ann was attacked, and that he fled. He says despite being only 13 at the time, he would have never left her to fend for herself.
Prior to going for basketball practice, Ann had gone to school that day at Alleyne’s High School in Regent Street.
She returned to her parents’ South Tucville home at around 3.30 p.m., and, dressed in a white blouse and matching mini-skirt, headed for basketball practice at the Parade Ground in preparation for a league competition.
Ann was a member of the Bristol Celtics and her basketball sessions usually ended late in the evening. But when 9 p.m. came and Ann had still not arrived home, her parents began to suspect that something was amiss.
At around 08.00 hrs the following day, Ann’s body was found in the alleyway.
Detectives would later round up several youths from Tucville and the neighbouring communities of Stevedore Housing Scheme, Meadowbrook and Festival City.
One of the prime suspects was a Tucville youth know as ‘Fat Man.’ He lived a few houses away from Ann Stewart.
The alleyway where the body was found was behind his home. ‘Fat Man’ also practiced karate and judo, skills that the police felt made him capable of snapping Ann’s neck.
Detectives found out that Ann’s death coincided with the suspect’s birthday. He had been drinking heavily on the night that Ann went missing.
Police believe that on the night of December 9, 1976, Ann Stewart was heading home when he either lured or forcibly carried her into his yard.
They believe that she was taken upstairs, sexually assaulted, slain and dumped in the alleyway. They also believe that the teen was killed during a struggle or because she knew her assailant.
“We have always believed that the act was committed by the suspect and others,” the detective told me. “In fact, I think he came close to confessing one night when I showed him the newspaper with her photograph.
“However, no one confessed to the murder. No eyewitness came forward with information about the crime. People in the area were reluctant to talk to the police and nothing of evidential value was ever found.”
While the clothing of the suspects was checked for bloodstains and their bodies examined for scratches and other recent injuries, no checks were made for fibres and other forensic evidence from Ann Stewart’s garments.
In an interview several years later, ‘Fat Man’ claimed that he had not even known Ann, although they had lived just a few houses apart.
On that fateful birthday of December 9, 1976, he had gone drinking with two friends. The ‘session’ had begun at around 3.00 p.m. in Georgetown. They had then driven in a ‘Mini-Moke’ to Tyrone’s liquor shop in Aubrey Barker Street, South Ruimveldt, where they remained until around 9 p.m.
The friends then parted, and ‘Fat Man’ said that he headed home, jogging all the way as was his custom when he was ‘high’. His ‘child mother’ and one-year-old daughter were at home when he arrived.
According to ‘Fat Man’, he went to work the following day, unaware that Ann’s body had been found in the alleyway behind his home. He said that two days later, policemen came to his home and said that they wanted to question him about a murder. He was taken to the East La Penitence Police Station, where detectives accused him of breaking Ann Stewart’s neck.
“They said that is only somebody who know karate could do that. I keep telling them that I don’t even know the girl, but they keep telling me that I kill her. They also said that the boyfriend claim that he and Ann were by the National Park (on the night of the murder) and that they saw a ‘fat man’ riding behind them. The boyfriend claimed that he ran away.”
According to him, the detectives made him remove his clothing and examined him for recent injuries. None were found, he said.
His clothes were examined and returned to him a few days later. The friends that he had gone drinking with were able to support his alibi for the night of the murder, he said.
He was kept at the station for another 24 hours before being released. He was picked up again in 1977 and held for a day. Police then told him he was free to go, and he had not been questioned since.
‘Fat Man’ said that he is as eager as everyone else to have the murder solved.
Recently, Crime Chief Paul Williams revealed that the Police Cold Case Unit has been set up. It is hoped that enough evidence will be gathered to have Ann Stewart’s case re-opened and finally solved.
(I am trying to assist Ann’s family in having Ann’s case re-opened. Anyone with information that could lead to the solving of this case can contact me on 645-2446, or at [email protected]) You need not disclose your identity.

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