Silent killer, pair of scissors

Dec 01, 2019 Murder and Mystery, News

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By Michael Jordan

The detectives smelled the stench of fresh blood almost as soon as they entered the three-bedroom house that was Lot 522 Kuru Kururu, Linden/Soesdyke Highway, on the morning of Tuesday, December 11, 2018.

That smell, emanating from a blood-soaked rug by the entrance of one bedroom, hinted to what lay inside that room.
The cops entered.
A man, shirtless, bloody and wearing rolled-up denim pants, lay on his side on a large bed. His legs were on the body of a half-nude woman, who lay at the other side of the bed, with her legs dangling over the edge.
The detectives counted about 30 tiny stab wounds; mainly to the face, neck and chest of the female victim. The same number of tiny punctures dotted the man’s stomach. Some of those wounds, they would later learn, had pierced his heart and lungs.
The victims were Alvin Blucher, a 48-year-old farmer, and his 34-year-old reputed wife, Naco Malika Hale, a cook.
There was no sign of forced entry to the three-bedroom, wooden property, and no sign that intruders had ransacked the home looking for valuables. This led some of the ranks to form a shocking conclusion: Killers and victim were one and the same. Blucher and Hale had inflicted the mortal wounds on each other.
The couple had four children, and had lived together for some 14 years. Neighbours reportedly often heard them arguing, however, one of Naco Hale’s relatives said that Hale had never complained of Blucher being physically abusive.
But Blucher did seem to have had a temper. In August 2018, he was charged for allegedly wounding his 13-year-old son.
It is alleged that the couple had argued about the case the night before the tragedy, since Blucher was due to return to court.
The family had then retired to bed on the night of December 10, 2018.
The following day, one of the couple’s sons found his parents’ mutilated bodies in their bedroom. His screams reportedly alerted neighbours.
That report seemed to fit with the theory that Hale and Blucher had killed each other.
But a few days later, a post mortem indicated that one sharp instrument had caused the fatal injuries. That ‘weapon’ appeared to be a pair of scissors that was found in the bedroom.
Investigators also concluded that it was virtually impossible for one mortally wounded partner to have had the strength to wrest the weapon away and stab the attacker multiple times.
The crime scene also baffled detectives. There were bloody footprints in the bedroom, and a bloodstained rug at the entrance to the door. However, there was no sign of a blood trail leading to either the front or back door to indicate that an attacker had fled the scene.
Hoping for some clarity, I contacted a relative of Naco Malika Hale. I ended up even more baffled than before.
I was told that while three of the couple’s four children, aged 13, 12, 10 and six, had their own bedrooms, the six-year-old son had reportedly slept with his parents that night. It was he, the relative said, who had awoken and seen the bodies.
Like his siblings, the six-year-old had apparently slept soundly through the vicious attack.
And so, apparently, had the couple’s closest neighbours, who reportedly said they had heard nothing unusual.
“The house is a wooden one and well ventilated,” the relative told me. “You would have heard screams coming from that house.”
The relative also said she questioned the children, who all refuted reports that their parents had argued the previous night.
They did confirm that they had heard Blucher apparently coaching Hale on what she should say in his defence when he returned to court for allegedly wounding his eldest son.
They had reportedly not heard their mother’s responses.
And what about motive?
I was told that Blucher had disputes with a number of people, including two individuals over some land he had sold. I was also told that he appeared to be extremely possessive, and would sometimes ‘stalk’ his spouse.
“People in the area knew there were issues (between the couple).They were not living happy. I learnt that neighbours would often hear them rowing.”
I was told that it was possible for someone to have entered the house through an unsecured window in the eldest son’s bedroom.
As to the ‘murder weapon’, the relative said that one of the children had found the pair of scissors, sometime ago. The family had kept it.
That bit of information ruled out any notion that someone had sneaked into the house, armed only with a pair of scissors, and murdered Alvin Blucher and Naco Malika Hale.
Hale’s relative said the suggestion that Blucher might have planned to kill his spouse, and somehow ended up dead, also does not add up.
She told me that Blucher had given his spouse money to purchase items for some of the children to take to school for a Christmas party, that was to have been held on December 12.
“If he had planned to kill her, why would he have gone ahead and given her money to buy those things?” the relative asked, adding that she is anxiously seeking closure.
So, as strange as it may seem, is it possible that Blucher and Hale had somehow gotten into an argument that had escalated; that one had stabbed the other some 20 or more times, and the wounded partner had somehow wrested the scissors from the attacker and inflicted similar injuries of their own?
Did someone somehow sneak into the house, apparently unarmed, find the pair of scissors, and kill Hale and Blucher? But how would the killer have known exactly which bedroom the couple occupied?
Or…did someone, at present unknown, intervene while one partner was attacking the other, wrest the pair of scissors from the attacker, and inflict the deadly wounds on that violent partner?
That seems a possible theory, but it leads to a conclusion that I find too terrible to contemplate.

If you have any information about this case, you can also contact Kaieteur News at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown location. We can be reached on telephone numbers 225-8458, 225-8465, 225-8491 or 225-8473. You need not disclose your identity. You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: [email protected]

 

 

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