Murdered guard’s widow complains about treatment by police

Eileen Elexey, the wife of the Mercy Wings security guard who was murdered in Sophia almost three months ago, has said that the police continue to “push” her around and any hope of the arrest of those responsible for the brutal slaying of Carl Nelson Bollers is fading.

A helping hand: “Every little thing I give God thanks for,” said Eileen Elexey, after she received an undisclosed cash donation yesterday at City Hall, to help in procuring school supplies for her daughter. The donation was made by Mayor Hamilton Greene on behalf of Harry Gill, a United States resident who decided to assist her after reading the Stabroek News article about her struggles to make ends meet, which was published last Sunday. Elexey’s husband, Carl Nelson Bollers, was stabbed to death by a group of youths during a robbery on July 25 as he guarded the Mercy Wings Vocational Centre in South Sophia. Since then she has found it difficult to provide for her daughter and herself. In photo, Elexey receives the donation from Mayor Green.

The woman, who last week had told Stabroek News that she was finding it difficult to cope since the main bread winner of the home was killed, said a visit to the Kitty Police Station on Tuesday left much to be desired.

She said she waited at the station for over two hours for the investigating officer and when he finally arrived he had nothing substantial to say but instead asked her what she had for him.

“He come in and guh ask me ‘wah you gah fuh me?’ and when I ask he wah he mean he said ‘Right now I hungry’,” the woman told this newspaper.

Elexey said she became angry and asked the officer how he expected her to give him money when she was a struggling widow and instead of apologizing to her, Elexey said he continued to “mock me.”

“He tell me but how when he wife cook and he ent go home on time fuh he food he neighbour does jump through deh window and eat he food,” the woman said.

“When he tell me dem thing me head just start pounding, is headache right away because I know dem people ent serious about solving the murder,” Elexey said.

According to the woman even though after the initial exchange the officer started to question her about her husband’s death she had no confidence that the visit was worth the while. And when she told the officer she suspected someone in the Sophia area he told her he could write up a charge and place the person before the court if she was willing to go to court and testify.

“But I tell he I suspect is for he to do the investigation and find out. A man say when he went to de station to give dem police a tip about de case, dem chase he out,” the woman said.

The grieving mother of one said she is not sure she would be returning to the police because “all dem doing is wasting me time.”

The woman, who is a part-time vendor at the Stabroek Market, had told this newspaper that she struggles to make ends meet and it is a task everyday to find money to send her only daughter to school.

The woman pointed out that it is not only the police who are dragging their feet but also her husband’s employer, the Mercy Wing Vocational Centre in South Sophia. The woman noted that when her husband was killed on July 25 last he was protecting the centre, a job he had done diligently for more than ten years. He was even given an award for his service to the centre. The man’s widow said that so far she has received only one box of biscuit and a bottle of coffee and more recently a bag of groceries.

She is not being told of any substantial support that would be given to her and her daughter. However, from time to time she would be told when she enquired that meetings are still being held.

Stabroek News contacted the centre and spoke to a Mrs Best, who said she was head of the centre, and when asked whether the centre would be giving any form of assistance to the dead guard’s family, she said that she could not “give out that sort of information.” She advised that a letter be written to the board that governs the centre.

Bollers was brutally stabbed to death by bandits on the night of July 25 and his wife had said his life could have been saved if the police had not taken three hours to arrive on the scene.

In that time the man lay in his own blood even as his wife begged persons standing around to assist her in getting her husband to the hospital.

The woman had stated that because the gate to the centre was padlocked and the man would have had to be hoisted over the fence, it was a task that was too much for her alone.