Appeal for information in ongoing murder investigation

Detectives are appealing for those people they believe have valuable information regarding the murder of a young man to come forward.

In the early hours of Saturday 6 April last year, Raheem Samuel arrived at hospital for treatment to two stab wounds to his back.

Police spoke to Raheem while at the hospital and he didn’t provide any information about how he sustained his injuries or the person or people responsible. The only information provided was that the incident had happened “in town” which is believed to refer to Leicester city centre. Raheem was discharged from hospital the following day.

A full and thorough investigation was carried out. However without a confirmed location of the assault and other investigative information not being present, the crime remained undetected.

In November last year, 21-year-old Raheem, from the Humberstone area of Leicester, complained of feeling unwell and after seeking some initial medical treatment, he went into cardiac arrest at home. He was taken to hospital on 6 November. He died in hospital three days later (9 November).

Raheem Samuel died in November last year

Following an initial post-mortem examination, further specialist medical enquiries were carried out over a period of five months, which in April this year determined his death had been caused by one of the stab wounds. A murder investigation was therefore launched.

A number of very specific operational enquiries have been carefully carried out since April to allow detectives, who were lacking in the usually crucial forensic and CCTV opportunities around the initial assault, to investigate the crime and generate lines of enquiries in the hope of successfully arresting and charging the person or people responsible.  The operational enquiries did provide some information which has been further investigated by police, but we now want to publicly appeal directly to those people who we believe know what happened to Raheem to come forward.

Detective Chief Inspector Tony Yarwood, the Senior Investigating Officer from East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU), said: “While I appreciate, it’s unusual to wait so long to publicly announce a murder investigation, going public sooner could have jeopardised those specific enquiries we wanted to carry out and our best chance at that time of finding out what happened to Raheem.

“Please be assured we have been doing everything we can to find the person or people responsible for Raheem’s death and that we continue to do everything we can to find answers for Raheem’s family. This has been a very challenging and complex case but we continue to work to find out what happened on that night back in April 2019.

“Now that the operational enquiries mentioned have been completed, I am directly appealing to those people who know what happened to Raheem and who was responsible for his murder as I believe that there is someone out there who has information, crucial information, which could make a huge difference to our investigation.

“A lot can happen in the space of 18 months, alliances can change, maybe relationships have broken down and you don’t feel so obliged to withhold what you know. The possibility of £10,000, being offered by the independent charity Crimestoppers, could be reason for your decision to come forward now and more importantly help move us closer to providing the answers to Raheem’s family that they rightly deserve.

“You can contact Crimestoppers anonymously without having to give your name. If your information given directly to Crimestoppers leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for Raheem’s murder, this money is available to you.

“A significant amount of resource has been dedicated to this investigation and Raheem’s family have continued to be supported throughout. This month marks a year since his death which understandably is a difficult time for them and solving this crime could give them some much needed closure.”

DCI Yarwood added: “Although it may be difficult for some to recall something so long ago, I would still like to take this opportunity to appeal to anyone who was perhaps making their way home across the city after a night out and may have witnessed Raheem being assaulted in the early hours of 6 April 2019 to speak to us. Perhaps you didn’t think much of it at the time, but the release of Raheem’s photo identifying him and the fact that his stabbing led to his death, may highlight the seriousness of what happened and may prompt you to contact us now.

Anyone with information they wish to pass onto police can do so by contacting us in one of the following ways:

• Contact police on 101 quoting Operation Kiosk and incident 351 of 10 November 2020. You can also report online at www.leics.police.uk
• Contact Crimestoppers – information below
• Report through our public portal at https://mipp.police.uk/operation/33EM19I75-PO1
• E-mail [email protected] or the Deputy Senior Investigating Officer DS Jon Davies at [email protected]

 

Crimestoppers reward

**This reward is being offered by the independent charity Crimestoppers and only information given to Crimestoppers will be eligible for the reward **

**Those who contact Crimestoppers can give their information completely anonymously and this can be done by their secure online form at www.crimestoppers-uk.org or by calling the Crimestoppers UK Contact Centre freephone number of 0800 555 111 which is open 24/7.**