Sophia girl stabbed to death at dance

A teenager was early yesterday morning stabbed to death by her boyfriend of two years at a dance in ‘B’ Field, Sophia.

Eighteen-year-old Alicia Mc Pherson was stabbed to her temple, neck and vagina and then left to bleed behind a toilet. Shortly before her bloodied body was discovered by a man who had gone to relieve himself, she was seen being assaulted by her 19-year-old boyfriend who fled the scene shortly after.

Police yesterday said they are investigating the murder of Mc Pherson who was stabbed after she was involved in an argument with a man. She was admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital where she died.

Alicia Mc Pherson
Alicia Mc Pherson

At her Lot 612 ‘D’ Field, Sophia home yesterday her grieving mother Denise Mc Pherson said her daughter left her home just after midnight with a male friend to attend a dance. The dance, this newspaper understands, was held at what is known as Capi Ground, B Field, Sophia.

According to the mother, who could not contain her tears as he spoke of the eldest of her four children, the friend is known to both her daughter and her assailant. The young man related to the family that moments after they arrived at the dance Mc Pherson’s boyfriend called her on her cellular phone and then he appeared.

“The boy say he lef them and went along he way because he know dah is she boyfriend,” the mother said.

A sibling of the young woman told this newspaper that the boyfriend was “seen slapping Alicia up in deh dance and like he then carry she to deh back.”

No one knows what happened when the couple went to the back in a secluded spot behind the outdoor latrine. But sometime after, it is understood that the boyfriend approached the DJ, took the microphone and suggested that the music should be shut off as someone had been injured. He then left the premises. But it was only after a man went to relieve himself that Alicia was found.

“The man see de person lie down and he went and call he friends and say like somebody drunk and lie down. But went dem went back and shine dem phone light dem see Alicia lie down in blood,” the teenager’s mother said.

She received a call at around 4am informing that her daughter had been stabbed and when she rushed to the hospital she found her daughter covered in blood and panting for breath. She died shortly after.

“She get stab to she temple, she neck, she vagina, he really stab up me daughter,” the mother said crying.

Asked if her daughter, whom she described as loving and outgoing, was ever abused by the young man the mother she was never told.

‘I know dem use to get dem one, one wrong but if he ever hit she, she never tell me anything,” the woman said.

 

Different story

However, the young woman’s father, Ankoma Powers, told a different story and he said if he had his way his daughter would not have been with the young man. Sitting a short distance from his daughter’s mother, with whom he no longer shares a relationship, the man said he took away his daughter’s phone because of the numerous times the boyfriend called and the odd hours.

Powers said he was overseas when his daughter struck up a relationship with the young man and when he met him he was displeased because of the boy’s mode of dress and his attitude.

“But I use to tell she if you get a boyfriend bring him home because I don’t want you meeting people on the road, I must know is who you friending with. I can’t choose for she but I didn’t know is a killer she pick up with,” the grieving father said.

He recalled that his daughter, who is the elder of two for him, was living with him and the young man would call sometimes at 3am and countless times during the day.

“I spoke to him and I told him my house have order and once Alicia is by me she have to follow my orders but he didn’t stop and I spoke to her too and I just took the phone,” he said.

But that did not serve as a deterrent as sometime late last year his daughter left his Kuru Kuru home and returned to her mother’s Sophia’s home. The father recalled seeing a mark on his daughter’s hand one day and when she was questioned she said she fell. He did not believe her but she stuck to the story. On another occasion while at her mother’s Sophia home, huge bite marks were seen on her and “she just say that the two of them went playing and he play bite she, but if you see these big bite marks.”

His daughter finally left his home when he objected to her going out and staying out late in the night. The father recalled that he insisted that she should not leave his home without his explicit consent.

After receiving the news yesterday morning he called the young man on his mobile phone and he immediately denied stabbing Alicia. He informed the father that he was in the National Park playing a game of cricket and after its completion he would willing to meet. However, after changing the venues for the meeting – which included his Grove, East Bank Demerara home – the young man failed to show up.

Powers said he visited the young man’s home and spoke to his mother and step-father and heard some horrifying stories of him. His mother informed that her son was in the habit of beating and also verbally abusing her and that she does not speak to him. His step-father also said he does not speak to the young man though he lives in the same house.