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Death followed him to Mahogany Heights

GeneralDeath followed him to Mahogany Heights
Four teens detained in murder investigation – gang involvement suspected
 
He laughed off his mother’s warnings. The youth he introduced to her on Wednesday, September 2, was his “shatta,” a sworn comrade, a friend. Despite his mother’s distrust, he let the youth sleep for two nights at his house in Mahogany Heights, located around Mile 32 on the Western Highway.
  
But four days after the youth known as “Popeye” began sleeping at his house, Austin Tillett, 16, was found savagely murdered – tortured to death.
  
Police found Tillett’s body on Sunday in an area 40 feet off an unnamed street in the village. Family members say his murderers had chopped him on both legs, just under the kneecaps, and behind the knees, where they met the back of his thighs.
  
Not satisfied, the murderers cut both of Tillett’s wrists, stabbed him a number of times in the face, about his eyes, then they cut his throat.
  
Police have detained four minors, all in the 16-17 age range, pending investigation into the incident.
   
Tillett’s mother, Valerie O’Brien, who works at a children’s home in Belmopan, told us that the moment she saw Popeye, she instinctively knew he was trouble.
  
But she said her son, the second of her three sons, merely hugged her and assured her otherwise – “Mama, don’t worry,” he reportedly said, and she acquiesced. Popeye slept in O’Brien’s home for two days, on Wednesday and Thursday.
  
A family member told us that earlier on Friday, three other youths from Belize City came to Mahogany Heights, friends of Popeye, who apparently were known to Austin.
  
O’Brien admits that while her son was not a known troublemaker or in frequent clashes with the police, he, although affiliated with the Crips gang, did hang out with unsavory characters from Belize City who were known to be in a rival gang, Bloods.
  
O’Brien told us this evening that she had moved her family of three boys from Belize City one year ago in order to get Austin away from the dangerous influence of the Southside Gangsters – a group affiliated with the larger Crips gang, whose turf is based on Kraal and Caesar Ridge Roads. Popeye and his friends are said to be part of the Bloods gang.
  
Valerie O’Brien came home tired from work on Saturday evening and saw off her middle son and Popeye from her house around 8:30 p.m. after learning that her elder son, Ryan, 18, had already gone out.
  
O’Brien then went to sleep, and woke up some hours later. Noticing the time – 1:00 a.m. – and determining that her son had not yet come home, she began to worry, because he never slept out of the house, no matter how long he stayed out, and he always came home with Ryan and, more recently, Popeye. A family member said that Austin’s mother waited up for her son after she woke up around 1 o’clock, but he never came home.
  
Worry became fear around 2:00 a.m., when Ryan showed up alone, and told his mother that after they arrived at the local nightclub near the front of the village, he had lost track of Austin.
  
After praying for her son’s safety, despite a strong feeling harm had come to him, Valerie went back to sleep, knowing she had to be up at 5:00 a.m. to reach work at 7 o’clock.
  
After getting ready she visited her son’s girlfriend and another of his friends living in the village, neither of whom had seen him past midnight.
  
At work, she called the police in Mahogany Heights, who confirmed her son had been seen with a group of young men on a bicycle around 1:00 a.m. that morning, and in Hattieville and Belize City.  
  
But since he had not been seen since, O’Brien’s fears mounted – that her son was indeed dead, and that his so-called friends had done the killing.
  
Now in high gear, she left work for home and met a woman who is the sister of a well-known police sergeant while traveling on the bus from Belmopan. The sister called her brother, who promised to investigate.
  
At the Mahogany Heights junction, Popeye himself, and his three friends, were waiting for the bus she was in. They got on while she got off, and she took the opportunity to speak to Popeye (who did not get on the bus), but he denied meeting her son on Saturday night and rode off with no reply when she informed him that Austin was likely dead.
  
She then visited another senior officer, who contacted the sergeant, who had already detained Popeye’s friends (Popeye himself was not detained until later) and was getting ready to look for the body, which he found about an hour later, at about 1:30 on Sunday afternoon.
 
Tillett’s body now awaits a post-mortem, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in Belize City.
 
Neither the fast police work nor the detentions are of much consolation to Valerie O’Brien, who still can’t believe that the violence she tried to escape by leaving the City found her 32 miles up the road.
 
Austin, who was to have attended Belmopan Comprehensive School, is survived by his older and younger brothers and various other relatives and friends.
  
(Ed. NOTE: Aaron Humes, reporter, interviewed Mrs. Valerie O’Brien for this story.)

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