Edmonton police use anniversary of homicide to appeal for more leads
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By Cailynn Klingbeil, Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON - On the last night Meriam Abe saw her son alive, she pleaded with him not to leave.
Friends and family had gathered at a community hall to celebrate Abe’s release from hospital, following a month-long stay in which she was treated for a brain aneurysm.
It was the Saturday night of the Family Day weekend and Abe’s son, 22-year-old Welid Sahle Meskel, joined friends and family at the hall for cake.
Meskel had been on his phone texting throughout the night, Abe remembers, and left shortly before 11 p.m. to meet friends.
“He said he’d come right back and help us clean up,” Abe said. “We were saying ‘don’t go.’ He said his friends wanted him to go out and they kept texting him. He said, ‘Please Mom, can I go?’ He said he’d be right back.”
A passerby found Meskel in an alley near 134th Avenue and 101st Street shortly before 5 a.m. the next morning, Feb. 19, 2012.
He was pronounced dead at the scene and an autopsy later determined he had been shot to death. Meskel’s slaying was the first of 29 homicides in Edmonton in 2012.
Now one year later, homicide detectives and Meskel’s family are urging anyone with information to come forward.
“Police are reaching out to the public on this anniversary date in hopes of keeping the investigation active, solving the crime and bringing some closure to the family,” homicide unit Staff Sgt. David Christoffel said at a news conference Tuesday.
“We’re asking the public for some help to fill in the gaps here. We have a puzzle with some missing pieces and we need some help.”
Although detectives have not been able to identify suspects in the case, the shooting isn’t considered random.
v“We think that Welid knew his killers,” he said.
Christoffel said Meskel was known to police in a “minor way,” but would not comment further.
“We do need the public’s help in bringing closure to the family. Somebody out there knows what happened and we need a phone call from that person.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Meskel’s cousin Merry Teamer and friends of the family Azmera Isaac and Lorna Hunt joined Abe at her home to mark the anniversary of her son’s death. Candles burned in front of Meskel’s framed high school graduation photo.
Teamer said her cousin was friendly and always had a big smile on his face, no matter what. “Even when he was mad he had a smile,” she said.
He loved animals and had bought a small Shih Tzu dog, Gucci, six months before he died.
The family has set up a memorial in the alley where Meskel’s body was found, a few blocks away from where he lived with his mom and younger sister.
Abe, who emigrated from Eritrea before Meskel was born, said her son was a helpful big brother to his sister, who is now 11 years old.
“I was a single mother and he helped me raise his sister. He was very good as a big brother. He took care of her. He changed her diapers and helped look after her when I was at work,” she said.
Meskel liked to play soccer and basketball and “loved video games.” He graduated from Archbishop O’Leary High School and had been working part-time.
“He just got in with the wrong people,” said Hunt. “We pray that we’ll find the person who did this dreadful thing to him.”
cklingbeil_at_edmontonjournal.com
Received on Wed Feb 20 2013 - 14:00:04 EST
