Boy, 15, questioned in sex worker murder probe

A 15-year-old boy has been questioned in connection with the murder of the male sex worker found dead in an open field behind the Carnegie School of Home Economics in January.

A reliable source told Stabroek News that investigators had received information from a relative of the juvenile who claimed that the boy confessed to murdering Wesley Holder, 19, just days before he was scheduled to return to Essequibo.

The source added that the juvenile was brought in for questioning and released from custody after the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions reviewed the case and found that no substantial evidence proved that the boy had confessed.

Wesley Holder
Wesley Holder

Although police say the case has not gone cold, Paula Niles, Holder’s Aunt, said that a relative of the boy informed her that he had said that he along with three others committed the crime. “His aunty told me that he and some other boy were talking in Essequibo and he told one that he rub a knife by old boy throat and killed him. So the young man went to his aunt and told him what was said and when the aunty confronted him about it he told her everything,” Niles said.

She added that after the horrifying confession, the woman then made a report to the police and the young man was held and taken for questioning at the Brickdam Police Station. After a couple of days, Niles said, she was told by a senior policeman that the young man was released into the care of a juvenile detention centre in Sophia while the investigation is ongoing.

An upset Niles said, “I does cry every day because is three months now and the police can’t charge nobody. You mean to tell me nobody”?

She said that Holder’s mother has been unable to come to grips with the loss of her eldest child. “She walking the road, talking to herself and jumping through windows. It’s not easy to lose a child without knowing who did it. Now it telling on her,” she added.

Holder, 19, of Cross Street, Werk-en-Rust, was found clad in a green fishnet dress on January 11. It appeared as though rigor mortis had already set in—an indication that he had been dead for some time. A post-mortem examination found he died from hemorrhaging and shock as a result of stab wounds and blunt trauma from a blow to the head.