Willabus had threatened murder/suicide - report
Stabroek News
January 31, 2003
Even as friends of Guyanese journalist Ian Willabus continue to express shock over the tragedy, more evidence is being unearthed that the man might have planned the murders before taking his own life.
The bodies of the 33-year-old Willabus, his wife, Dianne, 32 and Willabus’ three sons from a previous marriage - Padraic, 10, Damani, 5, and Deion, 3 - were found on Tuesday in their home at the Kenridge Apartments in central DeKalb County in Atlanta, Georgia. Investigators believe that the family had been dead for at least two days.
Autopsies on Wednesday confirmed that Willabus, a freelance writer for CNN International, carried out the shootings. Willabus’ first wife and mother of the boys, Michelle Pierre, is still in shock over the deaths. Sources close to the woman said yesterday that the bodies of the three children are expected to be flown into Guyana tomorrow.
Meanwhile, reports out of the US yesterday quoted a friend of Willabus’ second wife as saying that Dianne had feared for her life. Police had been called to the couple’s apartment in December because of “a verbal altercation,” but an officer handled the incident with mediation.
Reports state that Dianne Willabus had told a friend she was afraid of her husband and that he had threatened to kill her and himself.
“She said she didn’t want to tell [her family] because she didn’t want them to be worried,” an Atlanta Journal-Constituion report quoted Shalmeen McCutchen, 27, a former co-worker as saying.
According to the woman, the Willabuses were having marital problems after the wife found out that Willabus had cheated on her. It was also reported that Willabus had visited his wife’s workplace and threatened her. In the end he was removed by security guard.
As a young man, Willabus started his broadcasting career at his hometown Linden where he worked in the Linden Mining Enterprise Communications Department producing a radio programme - `This Week at GUYMINE’ which was aired on the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation.
He was a staffer at GBC during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Willabus also worked briefly at the then CNS Channel 12 (now Channel 6) as a reporter and presenter. Other places of employment in Guyana included the now defunct Guyana Airways Corporation and the City Council. Prior to his departure, GINA said, Willabus operated as a freelance journalist.
