KILLER FINISHES JOB

A month after Raul Joseph and his wife Andrea Edwards were stabbed by a man so brutally that Edwards died and Joseph was left paralysed, the killer returned yesterday morning and finished the job - stabbing Joseph as he lay helplessly on a bed inside his Carenage home. Once he ensured that his victim had stabbed breathing, the killer ran out of the house. Up to last night, he remained at large.

Relatives of the 42-year-old man were too distraught to speak to members of the media yesterday as they gathered outside the Forensic Science Centre in St James to await the autopsy report and death certificate. Police sources said that at about three o’clock yesterday morning, a man dressed all in black and with a hood over his head, forced his way into Joseph’s Moya Trace, Carenage home.

He walked up to Joseph who lay sleeping and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest. Police sources said that Joseph screamed out in pain. In the ensuing chaos as relatives scrambled in the dark to see what was going on and to reach Joseph’s bedroom, the killer slipped out of the house and disappeared into the night. Before an attempt could be made to have Joseph placed in a vehicle to be taken to hospital, he died on his bed having bled out from multiple stab wounds.

A report was made to Carenage police and a party of officers led by ASPs Prescott and ASP Mohammed, Sgt Arneaud, Cpl Rampersad, PCs Mc Clean, Murray, Gilkes, Denoon and Benjamin and detectives from the Homicide Investigations Bureau visited the scene. The District Medical Officer (DMO) viewed Joseph’s body and ordered it removed to the Forensic Science Centre for an autopsy. The area was cordoned off as officers searched for clues including fingerprints. An autopsy confirmed that Joseph died as a result of massive shock and haemorrhage consistent with multiple stab wounds.

On August 18, the couple’s 14-year-old daughter Keisha Edwards heard screams coming from her parents’ bedroom at about 2.10 am. When the daughter investigated, she found Edwards, 37, lying unresponsive on the ground and Joseph slumped nearby with stab wounds. According to reports, Joseph was taken to West Shore Medical, where he was treated, but Edwards was pronounced dead at the scene.

While relatives were reluctant to speak to media yesterday, other persons close to Joseph took to social media to express the sorrow and support to Joseph’s family. “RIP my love,” said one blogger.

“God alone knows how much a person can handle so Lord give me the strength I really need it now to deal with this,” another wrote. The murder toll for the year now stands at 330, as compared to 311 for the corresponding period last year.