Envy may have been behind the brutal murder of popular local actor Joel Fraser, according to his mother, who, while being left with a broken spirit, still clings to the hope that one day she will get justice.
November will make it five years since Fraser was murdered and his body left exposed to the elements on the Liliendaal Seawall near Ocean View International Hotel. The body of the Laing Avenue resident was found around 6 am on November 25, 2009, hours before his latest production was set to open at the National Cultural Centre.
So far the police have been seemingly unable to gather enough clues to identify a suspect. There is no word on whether the investigation is still being actively pursued.
To this day, Florizel Fraser still struggles to accept that her son is gone and that she will never see him again. She said that she is still in disbelief and the situation is “stressing me out.” She said she often prays to God to give her strength and guidance.
In the almost five years since she lost her only son, she has heard nothing more from the police or anyone else on the matter. She recalled that after he was found she had gone to the Sparendaam Police Station where his cellular phone and other belongings were lodged. She said she had spoken to the ranks and given them her contact information but to this day “no one never came back to give an update or tell me come and collect his things.
“The police weren’t helpful at all. They kind of ignored the matter,” she said.
She told Stabroek News that just before her son was killed, she had a strange and terrible dream which she would later learn was probably a premonition of his death. She said that in the dream, her son had red hair and she knew that that was not a good sign as red is often seen as danger. “No one thought it was a good dream,” she said, adding that when his friends came and delivered the sad news, it “was a shock and still not a shock because I remembered the dream.”
Florizel recalled how quickly she managed to get dressed before journeying to the scene. There she saw her son’s remains lying in a pool of blood.
Stabroek News had been told that Fraser was last seen in the vicinity of Bourda Market around midnight the day before when he was dropped off at Orange Walk after completing the final rehearsal for the comedy show he was involved in. Around 6 am the next day, joggers passing the Liliendaal area found him lying on the seawall in a pool of blood. This newspaper was told that his throat was slashed so badly that his windpipe was protruding. His face had wounds consistent with being hit with a blunt object and the perpetrator(s) had also used a knife to inflict other injuries.
Fraser at the time of the discovery was clad in a hat, t-shirt and his underpants. There was a pair of slippers on his feet. A bag containing footwear and his cellular phone were lying nearby.
Florizel recalled that the slippers her son had on were unfamiliar to her, adding that “it is not something that he would even walk about in the yard with.” She is of the firm belief that someone removed her son’s shoes and replaced them with the slippers which looked as though they belonged to a beggar.
She said that from seeing the body she got the feeling that he was killed elsewhere and his body dumped on the seawall. She said that near the body there were signs of dragging and his toe nails were “dig up” – a sign that he may have been dragged.
Envy
“Joel’s biggest problem was someone always envy him,” Florizel said, adding that just before he was killed he had gotten a promotion in his acting career. This she said might have “brought about a feeling and we don’t know how far it went.”
Based on what Stabroek News was told back then his laptop computer with production material for the premiere of the Mori J’von Comedy Jam, was among the items that were missing. This could possibly substantiate Florizel’s suspicions that the killing was linked to his acting career.
Asked if he had ever informed her of anyone who was envious of him or with whom he had a problem, she responded in the negative saying that he never discussed his career or other aspects of his life with her.
“I serve a God and I believe in him and I know he saw everything…” she said sadly while adding that she has been feeling physically unwell since her son was killed.
She said that she misses him a lot and is trusting in God to one day reveal the identity of his killer/s.
Reminiscing on his childhood, she said that from a young age he displayed signs of acting ability.
She recalled that when he grew up and his acting career kicked off, he would often take home his script so that she could help him rehearse. “I miss my son bad…” she said, her voice laced in grief.
Asked if she believes she will ever get justice, she said that it is something that she would like to have. ‘I didn’t expect a death like that.”
Three women, including Fraser’s girlfriend, were held for questioning but were released without charge.
Fraser’s killing was once of three seawall murders which had occurred within a seven-month period.
On January 18, 2010 the body of Llewelyn Fitzgerald Campbell called Elton of Lamaha Street, Kitty was discovered at the Kingston seashore behind the Guyana Forestry Commission. He was identified one day after his body was found by a man early that morning. He was last seen at Bourda Market but left saying that he was going to visit friends “on the seawall.”
On July 3, the body of Claudine Bentham, 43, of Hadfield Street, George-town was found on the grass parapet beside the seawall, between Celina’s Resort and the Russian Embassy. Her throat had been slashed.
‘Zagga Zow’ and ‘Tall man,’ who was said to have been the woman’s boy-friend was arrested three weeks after the woman was found but he was never charged. Relatives had pointed the finger at the man saying that he was the last person she was seen with.
