They believe that 26-year-old Iesha Byron was “silenced” because she knew something sinister about the suspect, who is her step-brother.
Byron’s nude body which bore gunshot wounds in the stomach and forearm was discovered by residents on July 17, 2007 amidst thick bushes behind D’Urban Backlands, several hours after she was escorted there by the suspect.
Residents had reported that around 11 pm, on July 16, they saw a dreadlocked man and Byron trekking through a dam leading to ‘A’ Field Sophia from the D’Urban Backlands entrance. About 20 minutes elapsed and residents said that they had almost forgotten that the two persons had passed by when they heard three gunshots.
Soon after the dreadlocked man who was described as short emerged from the bush. The man picked up the bicycle which was parked next to a tree and sped off. The residents said that they contacted the police and ranks responded, but after searching in the dark left without finding any trace of the woman.
Early the following morning, residents resumed the search and while combing the bushes stumbled upon the woman’s clothing strewn across the dam. Shortly after they found her body sprawled in a clump of bushes with gunshot wounds.
Byron’s relatives say that they are still overwhelmed with grief and for them God will one day ensure that they get justice. Going over the details leading up to the incident has so far failed to provide answers to their many questions.
“Why did she take off her clothing? And why did she go there with him?” are just two of the questions that they are seeking the answers to.
The woman’s sister Ianna, a local television personality and hairdresser was the last person to see her alive. While speaking to this newspaper recently, the events of that night were fresh in her mind. She recalled that the then 29-year-old suspect came to the apartment and Byron went outside to him.
She recalled that her sister pulled in the door so she was unable to hear what was being said, but minutes later, she returned saying that the suspect was there inquiring about their brother who was in police custody. She later left.
Ianna said that prior to that she had noticed that the suspect who was wearing a black and white pair of boots was pacing up and down in front of the door.
After Byron had left, she looked out of a window and saw the suspect pushing her sister’s bicycle while she was walking behind. Later that night, persons saw the two at an Internet café in the area but Byron never returned home and Ianna never saw the suspect again.
Ianna recalled that the morning after Byron left, she started to cry for no reason. “Thinking back it was strange. It was probably a sign that something had happened to her,” she said.
Later that day, a friend informed her that she had seen Iesha on the news and she was dead. After several inquires and after viewing another newscast, her worst fears were confirmed.
“This whole thing came as a shock to me because we didn’t know of any problem between them… He is we step-brother and we all grew up together,” she said.
‘Ah know is he’
Iana said she was certain that he had killed her sister because the same boots she saw pacing in front of the apartment door had been found at the scene. She added that a matching hat which the suspect was also wearing was found at the scene too. “He probably left in a hurry so he didn’t pick dem up,” she added.
Asked why Byron would have removed her clothing, the woman said that she had no idea, but knew she would not have done so willingly. She was adamant that the two were not in a relationship adding that a post mortem showed that she had not been raped. She stressed that the man was involved in a relationship with a teen and the family was aware of this.
The woman said that following the murder, he disappeared and stressed that if he was innocent he would have surfaced eventually.
From all appearances, the police knew who they were looking for as several days after the incident he was spotted in the area and was shot in the hand while evading capture.
Ianna told this newspaper that days later, a relative saw him in Suriname with his hand bandaged, and he told her a story but made no mention of Byron’s death. The woman said that the last information the family had received was that the suspect was incarcerated in French Guiana and was serving a five-year jail sentence. This was some time last year.
Strange men
About three weeks before her death, Iesha told her sister that two strange men had come asking her for the suspect. From reports he had run away with the loot from a robbery he had committed with the men.
According to Ianna her sister recounted that around 1 am one morning she went outside and found the same men sitting in the yard and she went up to them and got a glimpse of their faces.
She said that she believes the men’s sudden appearance had something to do with her sister’s death, because since the murder she was hearing many different stories.
The woman said that what was also strange was that the suspect had been living with them and then suddenly disappeared. Shortly after this, the strange men came asking for him.
Speaking of Iesha’s two children, now aged seven and five, Iana said that they were living separately; one is in Linden with her father while the other lives in Timehri with an aunt. According to her the children are well, but one can tell that the eldest one misses her mother and being apart from her sister.
“She had her ways… but she was good to me,” Ianna said speaking of Iesha, before adding that she was leaving everything in God’s hands.
Meanwhile, the dead woman’s mother, Sophia Charles told Stabroek News that she still cried whenever she thought of her daughter.
The woman said that she did not know the reason for the killing but she wanted justice. Charles added that she started caring for the suspect when he was seven years old and was unaware that he was living in Byron’s father’s property in East Ruimveldt. That is also where Iesha was staying.
The suspect became known to the family after Byron’s father started a relationship with his mother.
