Nicola Leacock, the sister of a 20-year-old miner who was murdered along a trail in Blackwater Backdam, Region Eight, says she will not rest until she finds justice for her brother and sees his assailant(s) behind bars.
Nickel Leacock was knifed to death along a trail in the Blackwater Backdam, Region Eight on August 18, and a month later police are yet to arrest anyone in connection with his killing.
Nicola Leacock said she was told by a police officer in Mahdia that there was not enough evidence to charge the person who was initially held after her brother’s body was discovered on the road. However, she said a pair of slippers and a head tie found at the crime scene belonged to the man who was arrested. “He was the last person who was seen with my brother, plus he had an argument with Nickel. I’m not a police but I can see all the evidence pointing to that man,” she said.
She said the police seemed to have abandoned the case like “many other killings that tek place in the interior.
“These things is what does happen in the interior… People get kill and their family get no justice. It’s heart-rending to see the police dragging their foot on this case,” she stated, noting that her father had returned to the Backdam and was “seeing this man walking around the place while he could no longer see or talk to his son.
“I’m not leaving it like this. I will go to the ends to get justice for my brother. These police ain’t doing anything to help us but I will not stop until I see someone lock up for murdering my brother,” she said angrily, questioning why the police could not return to the Backdam and investigate the matter further.
“We ain’t hearing nothing about it so they leaving us to believe that they abandon it,” she said.
On August 18, Leacock’s body was found by a group of Brazilian miners. According to his relatives, the young miner had gone into the area to deliver stocks to his father, who was working there. But when he arrived, he became involved in an argument with a man, and the next morning he was discovered dead with stab wounds to his neck.
A post-mortem examination performed on him showed that he died of shock and haemorrhage due to internal bleeding.
