Fitz Josiah, 63, who was on the run after the fatal stabbing of his 14-year-old step-daughter, was held last evening at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara.
Fenella Annalisa Samuels, of Plastic City, Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara was stabbed approximately sixteen times on Wednesday evening by Josiah, after a verbal altercation between the two spiraled out of control.
Josiah, who fled the house garbed only in his underwear, was held by public-spirited citizens and later handed over to the police, the police force said.
Stabroek News was told that Josiah, who seemed to be waiting on transportation to travel out of the area, was spotted by a child, who raised an alarm. Afterward, residents of Plastic City seized him.
Samuels’ mother, Mildred Josiah, 45, also received an injury to her left hand, for which she received several stitches.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday confirmed to Stabroek News that police investigations found that Fitz Josiah and Samuels had been involved in several verbal clashes prior to Wednesday’s fatal episode. During their previous encounters, he noted, the stepfather had made threats to take the girl’s life. He added that Samuels had also promised to report his many threats to the police, though she never actually made the reports.
Reports say that what was just another verbal altercation culminated in the fatal stabbing after Samuels once again threatened to report her stepfather’s death threats and alleged sexual abuse.
An older sister, Rhodesia Chance, told Stabroek News that the abuse had stopped when the family moved from Linden to Plastic City. Samuels, she said, refused to allow the abuse to continue and the man would argue with her and call her names.
The claims were backed up by two persons close to family. Both women, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Samuels had confided in them that she had been abused.
On Wednesday, the girl’s mother had said that the argument had started after the family was contacted by an unidentified male concerning the return of a stolen cell phone.
According to a family friend, who also asked not to be named, Mildred and Fitz Josiah left home earlier that night to purchase a half bottle of white rum, while Fenella stayed with her. The friend, who is also the family’s closest neighbour, said that the argument started while the two were returning home and continued when they returned home.
Once there, the neighbour said that Mildred Josiah called Samuels and told her to come home because her stepfather was arguing. According to the neighbour, Fitz Josiah began arguing with Samuels’ as soon as she got home.
Chance said that despite her mother’s pleas for her to stay quiet, Samuels’ continued responding to her stepfather, as she had always done. This apparently infuriated the man, who became even more verbally abusive, which in turn prompted Samuels to match his tone and insults.
Friends and family say that it was during this heightened level of exchanges that Samuels reiterated to her mother the abuse she had suffered and threatened to make reports to the police.
Stabroek News was told that the man reacted by slapping Samuels, who was standing in the hall of the house, before barricading her in her bedroom. Undeterred by this, Samuels opened the bedroom window and called out to the neighbour she had visited minutes before going home.
The neighbour said that when she went over to the house, she was met at the door by Fitz Josiah, who told her that “nobody in this house ain’t goin nowhere,” before locking the door.
The man then reportedly retrieved a knife from the cabinet as well as the half bottle of white rum he had bought earlier that night before positioning himself in front of Samuels’ room where he began to drink.
The arguing between Fitz Josiah and his stepdaughter continued despite her being barricaded in the room and the man, seemingly fuelled by anger and alcohol, eventually charged the girl’s door armed with the knife. He was stopped temporarily from entering her room by Mildred Josiah, who positioned herself between him and the door. The woman said that her husband, in an effort to get past her, turned his rage and the knife on her, slashing her left arm.
She said that after she received the injury she called out to her nine-year-old son, encouraging him to run away. He, however, refused to run, and Mildred Josiah reportedly sped through the front door in an attempt to raise an alarm.
With the woman gone, Fitz Josiah allegedly entered Samuels’ room, where he proceeded to stab her about the body several times.
Meanwhile, her mother and brother ran along the dam then through streets of the community begging her neighbours to render assistance. The woman said that it pained her to leave her daughter behind and she said that she heard her daughter calling out her as she went through the door.
Mildred, who has since been criticised for not doing more to assist her daughter, said that she dared not turn back since she figured that her only hope of helping Samuels rested in raising an alarm. The woman was convinced that her husband would have killed everyone in the house if she had stayed.
Upon hearing Mildred’s cries for help, a large group of neighbours banded together and proceeded to the house. By the time they arrived however, Fitz Josiah had already made his escape, and Samuels, though still alive, lay motionless on her bedroom floor.
She was reportedly lifted and taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital, where she died while receiving medical attention.
Mildred said she was told by the doctor who administered her stitches that her daughter was stabbed at least once to the heart, which made saving her very difficult.
While at the hospital, another of Mildred’s daughters said that she had warned her mother about Fitz Josiah’s abusive nature. Several neighbours alleged that the woman was physically abused by her husband.
