A male prostitute was found dead yesterday morning with stab wounds about his body on an open lot behind the Carnegie School of Home Economics, at Durban and High streets.
Wesley Holder, 19, of Cross Street, Werk-en-Rust, who was also known as “Horatia” and “Tiffany,” was found clad in a green fishnet dress. It appeared as though rigor mortis had already set in—an indication that he had been dead for some time.
Holder, who hailed from Essequibo, was the eldest of seven siblings andwas described as a very helpful person who was well known in his community and other areas.
His aunt, Paula Niles, with whom he lived, told Stabroek News that about 6:30 on Thursday evening, he left the house, telling her he was going for a walk and he would return soon.
“Last night when he was leaving to go on the street I told him not to go. I asked him where he was going and he said he ain’t have on no makeup, meaning that he was not going to work on the streets. He had on a slippers and this net thing that he had on,” Niles said.
“This morning I wake up and I find he was not home. Me and some others girls went to the station to see if he was in de lock up or he was in a fight or what. When we go, we heard he was not there. I then start now studying where this boy is because I know that this time he don’t be on the road. He does be home,” she said, as she broke down into tears.
“Is when a boy come and seh Horatia… Ow, meh nephew! Ow! Father, why? Oh Father! The boy seh they just find he body. I tell this boy come off the road and he ain’t listen to me. Why they do that? Ow, ma nephew! Why they kill he? Ow, it look like he was running…. He don’t do nobody nun. Every day I does buse Horatio. ‘Go and look fah a wuk and stop what he doing,’” she added.
His mother, Theresa Holder, who travelled from Essequibo to the city yesterday after receiving the news, remembered him as a good son, who always listened to her as he was growing up. As he got older, she said that she realised that he was old enough to make his own decision and as a result she let him go.
“I feel it to my heart. I use to talk to he and he never want hear. I feel bad because it’s my son, never listened… just laughed it off and just gone,” she said.
The last time she spoke to him was in December, when she advised him to stay in Essequibo and find work. But he declined and returned to Georgetown. When asked about his father, Theresa said that he was home with their other children. He was crying as she left, she added. “He was a very nice child growing up and was never this way,” Theresa cried.
Why?
An inconsolable Niles also recalled begging Holder to change his profession. “…I tell he don’t do it no more. It hut meh bad. I tell he stop. He been hospital because he had a cold. Father, God, you know this is we time. Nuff more gon dead like he. You is we judge, Father. Why? The last ting we do last night was talking and cracking jokes. Father, you knows is a human like he that kill he. I really hurt. Ow man, allyuh break he foot nah man. Why dey do dat?” she said.
Holder was said to be cautious with clients and as a result it was suspected that his death was not related to his work. Niles said that he normally returned home at about 11pm. “Sometimes he would say that the road hard and he would come in. But he didn’t come,” she said.
Niles also recalled that a few days prior a man with whom Holder had shared a relationship visited. He had been released from prison and Holder tried to borrow money from her to give to him, promising to repay her, but she declined.
She also said that about a month ago a young woman had visited and asked for her nephew, explaining that the two of them had a matter in court over an incident that took place at Stabroek market. She said that the young woman disclosed that her husband wanted to assault Holder because of the incident.
Holder had been charged last August with wounding and threatening a woman. He admitted to threatening the woman, for which he was fined $35,000, while he pleaded not guilty to the wounding charge, which was later dismissed for lack of evidence.
Sickening
At his home, many family members, neighbours and friends gathered in the yard, recalling hanging with him the previous day.
“Yesterday all ah we been in this yard and as usual he had all ah we skinning we teeth… and imagine we would’ ah hear Horatia dead, is real sickening,” one neighbour said.
Another neighbour, who provided her name as Sasha, said that she last spoke to Holder on Thursday night. “Last night I saw him going out and I ask he where he heading and he said that he wasn’t going out for business, he was just going out for a stroll,” she said.
She added that when she received the news of his death yesterday morning, she immediately rushed to the scene and saw his still body lying on the grass with his throat slit and a number of stab wounds.
On of his closes friends, Merissa, said, “I loved him like me lil brother. We does always talk. He never keep anything from me. And every morning gays are out here. Suddenly, this morning none of them came.”
Merissa, who described Holder as a fun person to be around, said he stayed out of trouble. “He never been in no fight. He would go out there and do he business and come home. He tell me one time some men carry he till in Sophia and leave he there. Horatia walk till from Sophia and come home,” she added.
