Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 14, 2011 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery
– sacrificial murder for wealth, health and a US visa
By Michael Jordan
Who would strangle a two-year-old girl after having a dream about ‘Dutch gold’ buried in their backyard? Or stab a nine-year-old boy to death and dump his corpse in a latrine?
And who would squeeze the life out of a newborn girl on the orders of a so-called ‘spiritualist’ in the hope of getting an American visa?
The answer: People right here in good old Guyana; people who believe that the blood sacrifice of a child will bring them wealth, good fortune, or cure an incurable disease.
We friendly, hospitable Guyanese might not like to admit it, but cases of human sacrifice have been with us as long as we have had a police force.
The most infamous case happened in the 1950s in the quiet community of Stanleytown, New Amsterdam. According to the chronicles of the late police journalist and writer John Campbell, it all started when a woman, Kathleen Paulton, dreamt that a demon-like man told her that there was ‘Dutch’ gold buried in her backyard. The ‘man’ in the dream reportedly told Paulton that the gold could be hers if she sacrificed a child.
The dream occurred at a time when Paulton and her husband were going through hard times. She consulted her brother, Eric Benfield, who also lived in Stanleytown with his reputed wife, Dorothy Brutus.
Eric, known as “Shave Ice Man’, had a deep interest in the occult and often held ‘spiritual’ sessions in his apartment. He immediately hatched a diabolical plan.
Eric and his spouse lived in a back apartment in the same building with their landlady, who had a five-year-old daughter named Lilawattie. He decided that the landlady’s little daughter would make the perfect sacrifice.
With the help of his sister, Kathleen, and her husband, Eric killed the child and hid her in his apartment. But the landlady soon missed her daughter and a search was launched for the missing child. One woman who remembers the case said that the culprits hid the body under their mattress when the mother came to the apartment to see if Lilawattie was there.
When they thought that the coast was clear they dumped the body in a nearby latrine.
However, suspicion fell on them and police eventually searched the latrine and found the body.
For this heinous crime, Eric Benfield, Edward Fullerton, and his wife, Kathleen, were all hanged.
But strange as it may seem, there are still some people who practice ritual murder for gain, and one such man was Michael De Noon.
In 1993, De Noon, a young father, somehow got it into his head that he could acquire a US visa if he sacrificed his newborn daughter, Mary, to the ‘spirits’.
Reportedly acting on the advice of a female ‘spiritualist’, De Noon forced his wife to take their baby in the dead of night to a desolate spot at the Lamaha Canal.
He then muttered an incantation, threw some money into the water, then strangled his daughter.
Dumping the tiny corpse into the water, madman De Noon then forced his spouse to accompany him to a city hotel. But while he slept, the woman sneaked out of the hotel and notified the police. She took the lawmen to the spot where Michael De Noon had disposed of the body. De Noon was arrested and charged.
However, the accused child-killer died in prison before his High Court trial could begin.
Believe it or not, the most recent case of child sacrifice occurred in 2003.
This time the victim was nine-year-old Daniel Netram.
Netram, known as ‘Jackie Chan,’ disappeared from his home at Brickery, East Bank Demerara, on September 21, 2003.
According to police reports, Daniel was last seen alive at around 18:00 hrs, when he and a brother went to fetch water a short distance from their residence. But instead of returning home, Daniel reportedly told his sibling that he was going to visit a man known to the family. The man also lived at Brickery.
The lad’s mutilated body was found a few days later in a latrine behind an abandoned property.
The corpse bore three stab wounds to the chest and one behind the neck. His left hand was severed at the wrist and his head was shaven.
Detectives believe that the boy was murdered by an East Bank Demerara couple at the behest of an ‘obeah man’, who claimed that murdering the child would rid the couple of an incurable disease.
Police reportedly received a statement from a woman who claimed that she saw her husband and another man kill the child and dump his body in a latrine. She also allegedly saw when the lad was mutilated and placed in a bag.
Indications were that the prime suspect had made similar attempts on an older boy in the community, but the lad managed to escape.
Detectives believe that Daniel unwittingly sealed his fate when he went to visit the man after he was sent to fetch water.
Acting on this information, detectives arrested a woman, her husband and a so-called ‘spiritual healer’ from Greater Georgetown. Two people were charged with Daniel Netram’s murder but the cases were dismissed. No one else was ever apprehended.
Will there be other child-sacrifices in Guyana?
Only time will tell.
If you have any information about this or any other unusual case, please contact Kaieteur News by letter or telephone at our Lot 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown office. Our numbers are 22-58458, 22-58465, 22-58482 and 22-58491. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address: [email protected]
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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