How did the killer break in? 

By Emmanuel wise Jipoh

It’s roughly two weeks since the gruesomely murdered of former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott’s daughter, Charloe Musu, and the police authorities here are yet to make any arrest.

How the killer broke into former Chief Justice Scott’s fenced residence in Brewerville remains a question that the public is yet to get an answer to.

Cllr. Scott said she had reported two previous armed robbery attacks to the police and the Minister of Justice before the third incident that killed her daughter.

During the third attack, Cllr. Scott said Charloe was stabbed multiple times, leading to her sudden death.

The Liberia National Police (LNP) has identified Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee and Monrovia City Police Officer Varlee Telleh as persons of interest based on allegations by former Truth and Reconciliation Commission Chairman Cllr. Jerome Verdier who resides in the United States.

Both Koijee and Telleh have appeared before the police authorities under the guidance of their lawyer Cllr. Arthur T. Johnson denies any links to the brutal incident at Cllr. Scott’s residence.

From what the NewDawn investigation has gathered, at least five women lived in the house. They were Cllr. Scott, the late Charloe, and two other relatives. Two unarmed private guards were said to be rendering security services there.

Our reporter says up to Monday, 6 March 2023, Cllr. Scott’s residence remained barricaded as a crime scene.

Since the incident, there have been many conspiracy theories about what actually happened in the former Chief Justice’s house on the night of February 22.

And this public concern may be driven by two previous incidents that Cllr. Scott said she reported to the police and the Minister of Justice, lamenting that an unknown man had invaded her residence.

The police initiate report said there was no evidence of a break-in at Cllr. Scott’s residence. But following public pressure, the police announced that it was threating individuals who may have been in the house or visited the house before the incident as persons of interest.

But Cllr. Scott and her family differed with the police and raised concerns that the police’s preliminary report may have been predetermined.

In the wake of the ongoing probe into the murder at Cllr. Scott’s residence, the NewDawn’s reporter on Monday, 6 March 2023 visited the former Chief Justice’s residence.

Our reporter says the stateswoman’s property is situated on approximately one acre of land, and it has a low fence without any barbed wires. The fence has multiple gates for entry.

It also have a provision shop connected from the inside with flattop house overlooking the other other gate adjacent to the Redeemer International School. At the back of the house, Cllr. Scott shares a boundary with another fenced property belonging to Wendell Shasha, a former reporter for Prime FM.

Our reporter observed that the side of Cllr. Scott’s property which faces the school nearby can easily be sneaked into because it’s low.

Before these attacks, residents say Cllr. Scott only had two private security guards at her residence. The fence is very large, with so many trees of different fruits in it.

She has no security dogs inside the fence to deter any intruder from hiding between those huge fruit trees in her yard.

Our reporter says anyone can easily sneak in and remain hiding in the many lope holes inside Cllr. Scott’s compound.

Two unarmed private security appeared to be ill-prepared to properly secure this vulnerable compound, our reporter says.

Potential hideouts inside the compound especially during the night hours could be the pantry, the high bush, the kitchen, and an old generator room which is surrounded by thick bushes, among others.

Cllr. Scott’s Brewerviller residence is said to be undergoing massive renovation works 18 years after it was constructed.

Residents in the area told our reporter that the place in which Cllr. Scott built her compound is considered a community.

They said they do not face threats from criminals, and homes are not easily invaded there.

One of the residents, Dauda Fahnbulleh who works as a mechanic for a nearby garage, said at no time did they ever experience robbery or hijacking. He told the NewDawn that at the time of the incident at Cllr. Scott’s residence, he had gone home and his co-workers from the garage near Cllr. Scott’s residence remained on duty.

He said his co-workers from the garage didn’t notice any strange person entering Cllr. Scott’s residence. Upon his return the next day, Dauda said he heard about the incident and saw police barricading the area. Dauda said the incident shocked every neighbor.

This paper also spoke with Moses Wright, one of the private security guards who was held in police detention following Charloe’s murder.

Wright said on the night of the incident, he was at the top of the building where the provisional shop is, but he didn’t notice any strange entry into the fence. 

Wright explained that he and his colleague identified as Zion Tarr, usually exchange security shifts on the assignment at Cllr. Scott’s residence.

He said both of them were assigned on 14 February 2023 by private security firm Genesis Security Service to protect Cllr. Scott’s residence.

He explained that after Cllr. Scott’s contractors including engineers and electricians concluded their work, he escorted them outside the fence and ensure that everyone left before he closed the gate.

He said after locking the gate, he went to the flat top and remained there to monitor.

Also speaking to the NewDawn, Wendell Shasha, a neighbor of Cllr. Scott said it was surprising to them to hear of the attack.

She said they heard a call raising an alarm against a rogue, adding that the noise came from their neighbor’s fence at about 9-10 P.M.

But she said they couldn’t get outside their facility because of fear. Shasha said they woke up the next morning and heard that an armed robber had entered their neighbor’s fence, killing the girl.

She said it was at that time that she got to know Cllr. Scott was the owner and occupant of the fence.

Shasha said at no time did they experience criminal attacks in the community, and her segment of the co-joined fence is usually open without threats.

Meanwhile, the Forensic Team of the Liberia National Police (LNP), for the first time on Monday, 6 March, led the bereaved family and their lawyers to the crime scene.