When death came knocking on the door of 54-year-old Johnathon Homer on Wednesday night, he unknowingly answered it. The Point Fortin father of four was stabbed numerous times and his throat slit. After a hard day at work, his wife, Denise Henry, suffered the shock of her life when she came home to his lifeless body lying in a pool of blood in their living room at Heliconia Avenue, Southern Gardens. Police said Homer, a mason at the Point Fortin Borough Corporation, might have heard someone knocking on the door and as he opened it, he was fatally attacked.
At their home yesterday, Henry, an employee of Trinwell Contactors at Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre refinery, spent yesterday trying to rationalise the killing. Their 25-year-old son, Nathan Homer, said the kitchen was flooded because Homer had left the tap running while preparing to wash the dishes. He added: “When I reached home people were already here. The policemen said that my dad got stabbed and his throat was slit. “I left home at 4.50 pm and nobody was home when I left. The borough corporation’s work finishes around 11.30 am and from there, he (Homer) goes to his PJs (private jobs). He would finish around 5.30 pm and come home before 6 pm.
“My mom found him by the door when she came from work around 9 pm last night. The door was open. “I don’t know what was the scene was like inside but she freaked out and she started to scream. The neighbours around heard the commotion and they came across to see what was going on.” Investigators were trying to establish a motive for the killing as the house was not ransacked nor was anything stolen. Nathan believes his father’s killing was a “hit” that was being planned weeks ago when their dogs were poisoned. He added: “I can’t say what someone would have come for inside this house because it had nothing to steal. How this thing happened, stab wounds and slit throat, it was like a plan, like someone went directly for my dad. He was a humble guy. He never did anything to anyone.
“I don’t know if the person who did this murder, if they were stalking him in the area, watching my dad’s movements. Less than two weeks ago, someone poisoned our two dogs in the yard.
“I don’t know if they thought it was easier access to the yard by killing the dogs. A day they (dogs) went down the hill, then a guy passed and told my dad that they found two dogs at the bottom of the hill poisoned. “I just found that was really strange. Somebody had an agenda. Somebody was planning to come in this yard to do something. I don’t know if it’s something they saw my dad had and they were envious of it.” As Nathan and other relatives sat in the yard, he remembered his father encouraging him to excel at football and his advice to learn a trade. Homer, a former player with the Point Fortin Tornados Steel Orchestra, was also planning to build a house to rent out this year.
“He was caring, he was really passionate about me playing football. He always wanted me to learn a trade, get into the same work he had been doing, not to just have football as the only skill in life,” Nathan said. Lamenting the high murder rate, he said: “I find it is ridiculous. It is overbearing now. Innocent people are dying and I don’t know what are the heads’ solutions to bringing down the crime in this country. I don’t know what is going on.”
