Murdered victim found in drum

A girl believed to be in her early 20s has been allegedly murdered and her remains dumped in a drum at her parents’ residence in the Paity Town on Bushrod Island. The victim’s body was discovered in a drum on Sunday, November 30, 2014 at her parents’ house where she and her spouse had allegedly resided before they ran into conflict.

Multiple eyewitnesses at the crime scene told this paper on Sunday, that victim Sonnie Tipayson, 22; and her alleged lover suspect Sylvester Davis, had been in her family’s house but they sometimes had tussled mainly bordering on jealousy.

Onlookers said the victim had not been seen since Friday, November 28; suspecting that the incident may have occurred when most people left their homes to witness the launch of the political campaign exercise of main opposition leader George Weah, while others went out to work or do business.

Forensic officers from the Liberia National Police or LNP were seen conducting an investigation of the crime scene, but they could not allow this paper to get additional information immediately. Statements could not immediately be obtained from the victim’s parents, including Mr. Eric Tipayson, as family and sympathizers wept over the horrible end of their daughter’s life.

Kelvin Welleh, an eyewitness, who said he was among the first group of residents that responded to Mr. Tipayson’s alarm of the incident on Sunday, 30 November noted that  the father discovered the corpse while in a thorough search for something that was causing strange smell in the house. “The body was found in a fuel oil drum,” he said, adding that the victim’s family had earlier asked her lover Sylvester to leave the house due to conflict between him and victim Sonnie.

Suspect Sylvester had allegedly appealed to Sonnie’s family to give him up to one month to relocate, but he allegedly took the victim’s life and forced her body “up-side–down” in a drum before hiding her in one of the rooms in the father’s house while her family members were not around, onlookers claimed.

Paity Community Youth Chairman, Mr. Johnson Clarence Wesseh, said there was report that “prior to the incident, there had been misunderstanding between the late Sonnie and her husband Sylvester Davis.”

Mr. Wesseh said, “malice” between the suspect and the victim began on Thursday, November 27, when they had conflict, “and to our utmost surprise, her father smelled odor when he was cleaning up this morning… and found it was his daughter in the drum.”

Some eyewitnesses claimed this was not the first incident linking suspect Sylvester, light in complexion, who is reportedly on the run. The police have made no arrest in connection with the alleged murder.