Miner stabbed to death at Blackwater Backdam

A 20-year-old Mahdia man was found dead along a trail in Blackwater Backdam, Region Eight early yesterday morning.

Nickel Leacock, of Lot 111 Miles Mahdia, was headed into the village to carry goods for his father, who was working in the area, when he got into an argument with another young man on Monday night. The next morning, at around 3am, he was found dead with stab wounds to his back along the Blackwater trail by a group of miners.

Nicola Leacock, Nickel’s sister, said the suspect was arrested by police after a slipper belonging to him was discovered at the crime scene. She said police told their family that while the man admitted to rowing with Leacock the day before, he has denied murdering him.

Nickel Leacock
Nickel Leacock

“He left Whitewater and when he reached Blackwater, he and the boy had some argument and he walk away. But like the boy didn’t want to leave things so he hide out on the road for Nickel and stab and left him for bleed,” a crying Nicola said.

She said Leacock did not want to go into Blackwater and had resisted but she had persuaded him to go and help their father. “We begged him to go and help daddy and this was the result. I mine him since mommy dead. He was only six years and he gone,” she lamented.

Meanwhile, police in a statement said investigations were in progress.