Iosefo Magnus Murder
Light on the condition of not being identified.
“We had left school in the night between 9 o’clock and 10 o’clock after smoking so much weed,” he said.
It was a routine for the two best friends to take a walk when they smoke. They took a walk from Centrepoint to the Wainivula shortcut.
“We went to buy cigarettes from a lady who lived close to where there were buses parked. From there we smoked and walked back to the main road using the shortcut.
“We were going our separate ways. He was going to take the shortcut through Veisida to go home and I was going to walk the main road and enter Caubati, when a man who was seated at the bus stop started calling him.”
By that time, the main suspect had already started walking towards Caubati junction.
“I couldn’t recall what the guy was wearing because it was dark, I was short sighted, and I was rushing home because I was hungry.
“But Iosefo had gone with this guy, inside the shortcut again. That was the last I saw of him.”
The next morning, he saw the crime scene tape around the area while travelling to school.
He didn’t want to believe that it was Iosefo, until he heard the news.
On the same afternoon, he was taken in for questioning.
“I was again taken in on Sunday the same week and was detained for three days.”
Another man was also questioned. He was lying drunk at the bus stop across from Veisida that morning, the main suspect said.
“2017 was the worst year of my life. My friends all blamed me for what had happened.”
He recalled how Iosefo was the life of the party, a bubbly person.
“But he was a different person when he stayed with his family, he was the only guy and had a certain way to act.”
He said Iosefo had gone through the same ordeal before.
“He was beaten up twice before the incident that led to his death.”
Iosefo and the main suspect knew each other through a mutual friend. They had studied Law at USP.
WITNESSES
An eyewitness said he was going to dispose of the rubbish when a woman approached him about the incident.
It was between 6:30am and 7.30am. The neighbour spoke to us on the condition of not being identified. He has lived in the area for more than three decades.
“The woman said a man had discovered the body when he was crossing the cassava patch.
“His body must have been left there for a few hours before its discovery.”
The man who had found him, had covered half of his body when he discovered there was a dead body in the cassava patches.
SHORTCUT TO WAINIVULA
The shortcut was where people would get mugged by young boys living around the neighbourhood.
It was overgrown with cassava patches and mango trees. The area was only cleared a year after the murder of Iosefo, when residents had requested the local Police Community Post.
Ever since the incident, streetlights had also been installed along the footpath and cameras on nearby houses.
The late Iosefo resided in Kinoya at the time. It is known in the area that youths from Veisida and Kinoya are the worst rivals of Caubati youths.
It was more emotional when Iosefo’s parents had to identify their son in a body bag. Iosefo Magnus Relative