Sons Kill Father

A gruesome murder of a father Michael Whitfield during an alleged tussle with two of his sons Michael Junior Whitfield and Joseph Slobber has left residents of Kpan Town, Kebbah community in Barnersville in disbelief.

According to the residents, the incident occurred at about 2:00 A.M. on Saturday, when a biological son of the deceased Michael Junior Whitfield, and his foster brother Joseph, attempted preventing their father from beating their mother Annie Slobber, who the late Michael Whitfield had earlier accused of being in a love affair with her Church pastor.

According to the Community Chairman Mr. Richard Holman, the victim had earlier expressed his dissatisfaction over his wife’s usual late return home from Aladura Church each Sunday.

Mr. Holman narrated that while the couple were in an apparent scuffle, the two children tried to rescue their mother Annie from the father but the late Whitfield allegedly picked up a cutlass and while in a tussle with the children over the cutlass he got stabbed while both suspects were severely wounded.

He said residents subsequently rushed the victim to the Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town, but was pronounced dead upon arrival.

The late Michael Whitfield was said to be a brother of former National Patriotic Party Secretary General John Whitfield. Mr. Holman said during the incident, the residents had tried unsuccessfully to contact some family members of deceased via mobile phone.

However, the widow Annie Slobber provided totally a different version of the story. She claimed that her husband denied the suspects from entering the house on grounds that they had arrived home from a video club at about 1:00 A.M.

According to Annie, the children forcibly burst the door and made their way into the house, adding that it was at that moment when her late husband rushed for his cutlass to discipline the suspects.

Annie said she could not specifically say which one of her sons actually murdered their father because she had escaped from the house to seek her neighbors’ intervention into the dreaded fight that ensued between her husband and the children.

She said upon her return to the scene, Mr. Whitfield was already lying in cold blood with his intestine protruding, while both sons sustained severe injuries. Residents have however suspected that the victim might have been killed by his biological son Michael Junior Whitfield.

According to eyewitnesses, Whitfield Junior had gone to rescue his foster brother Joseph Slobber after their late father allegedly gashed him above his eyebrow with a pot top.  They added that in the process Junior and his father allegedly tussled over the cutlass and a civil knife before he was stabbed and Junior was chopped on his hand.

Efforts to photograph the corpse of Mr. Whitfield in the house were unsuccessful as the Zone Four Depot One Police Commander Sergeant James P. Yekeku, prevented this paper from photographing the corpse until the arrival of the Homicide Investigation team, but a man who claimed to be the Chief of Homicide later told our reporter that homicide investigators prohibit journalists taking photos of corpses.

Meanwhile one of the suspects Joseph Slobber was transferred from the Zone Four Deport One in Barnersville to the newly created Zone Four substation at the junction of the Ministry of Agriculture (formerly LPRC) in Gardnerville to protect him from angry mob.