Suspect to be charged soon in murder of Bethel man

Three Sundays ago, on June 17, Anthony Noel, 65 left his Simon Lawrence Road, Bethel home to go to Lambeau to help friends cook for harvest celebrations in that village. Six days later, on June 23, his body was discovered by Scarborough police at a cemetery at Logwood Park, Glen Road, Scarborough. His head was bashed in.

Officers attached to the Tobago Homicide Unit said they would soon be approaching the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to charge a male suspect for Noel’s murder. Acting on information, police embarked on a search and discovered the body in the cemetery.

Three male suspects, including a teenager, of Louis Dior and Logwood Park, were held., with two of the suspects later released after assisting police with investigations.

An autopsy conducted on Noel last week Friday revealed he died as a result of cranial cerebral injures and haemorrhage due to severe trauma to the head.

On Monday, a sister of the murdered man told Newsday Tobago the family was struggling to come to terms with his death. She said Noel was last seen at the Lambeau harvest.

The sister said Noel, a retired builder/contractor has never strayed from home and was not known to have any issues with anyone in or out of Bethel. She said relatives believe he was killed for a large sum of money that he reportedly told a friend about, while liming at a bar in Scarborough.

She said the family was searching for Noel even as they were preparing funeral arrangement for his mother, Phamine Augusta-Webb, who died on June 11 at age 100, and who was buried last Wednesday, two days after Noel’s body was discovered by police.

Noel, the ninth of 12 siblings was called “the Black Chinee” as he was known for preparing tasty Chinese-styled dishes. His sister described him as an excellent cook who was always jovial and loved to dance and write poetry. She said Noel, who was single and had no children, would usually go to the Lambeau harvest.

“He would usually tell us where he is going and I am saddened to know he had to endure that kind of heinous crime where they mash up his head. We are very angry although we forgive whoever did it. We are still very hurt about what happened,” she said.

“It is very hard, it is a trying time, but we are drawing our strength from God and our prayers. It’s very hard seeing that we just buried out mother a week ago and now a brother; we are trying to cope. The last time I spoke to him was the week before he went missing. We had a normal everyday conversation on how he was going,” she said.

She said the family has hope the police would bring justice to the family.

Noel will be buried this afternoon at the St Peter’s Spiritual Baptist Church, Bethel.

Noel’s murder brings to five the number of homicides on the island for the year to date. In 2017, Tobago recorded 13 murders, six in 2016, seven in 2015, eight in 2014 and four in 2013.