BY SIMON NDIVE KALLA
The corpse of the Director of the Multipurpose Youth Empowerment Center Fako, Sone Frederick, was on the morning of Thursday, July 10, discovered hanged on a television frame at the reception of the Fako divisional delegation of Youths and Civic Education which hosts the Center.
The shocking incident has since spread a wave of bewilderment, as some who knew the late Sone continue to find it difficult to put his demise in context.
Sone is being described as a gentle soul who was humble, honest and with much love for fun and humour.
The assistant State Counsel for Limbe, accompanied by law enforcement officers arrive the scene of the incident around 10 am Thursday, and after preliminary observations and investigations, the corpse was later conveyed to the mortuary of the Limbe Regional Hospital pending funeral arrangements.
The deceased was transferred to the divisional delegation of Youths and Civic Education in 2016 where he worked as a staff for four years before his appointment as director of the Multipurpose Youth Empowerment Center in 2020.
The SUN gathered that, moments before his death, Sone posted on his WhatsApp status cautioning others to be careful with the sites they visit on Facebook.
Following preliminary investigations, a piece of paper was discovered on his office table which read, “Let me protect my family I don’t have any person to sacrifice…ou je suis entrée dans quoi je ne sais pas”.
According to reports from his colleagues, they say for the past one week, it had been observed that Sone popularly known as “Fred” was not the person he used to be as he had lost all his sense of humour and to an extent even his memory.
He leaves behind a son, a pregnant wife, friends, relatives and colleagues.
By press time, it wasn’t clear if he had actually hanged himself or was killed and the circumstances staged. The uncertainty has sparked up debates across Limbe.
“The rope is loose! How can a loose rope strangle? There is no distress on his face. We have seen countless faces of suicide by hanging. Eyes are often open. Tongue bulging out. Pain from the minutes of struggling written on the face. Not this one. The movable counter (dixit Peter Parker) is still table (desk) height. From that height, the legs of the deceased cannot possibly be suspended. If his feet are not suspended, he could not possibly have been strangled by the cord. Lots of questions left unanswered”, an observer writes.
“To arrive at a conclusion in any investigation, you must have examined every little bit or piece of any alibi or source. It’s only after you must have corroborated all your findings before you can say with certainty or near exactitude. Else, your conclusion will really be half-baked. You got to consider the pic, his last post on his status. What his colleagues have been saying, explore his last phone communications or interactions, interview or get the side of his wife, take finger print scans on his body, office and, if possible, iris scans. And get the doctor’s report before you can be able to make a definitive conclusion. It’s true that the hanging pic is one of the prima facie evidence. But it is just one, though”, another maintains.
“The photograph of the note he left on his desk needs to established if it’s definitely his handwriting…is he bilingual to have written in English and French. Could it have been cooked up by someone?” a third observer questions.