Family Of Man Murdered In Pitsea Appeal For Information

7 September 2018, 12:24 | Updated: 7 September 2018, 12:36

The family of Dwayne Forrester who was murdered in Pitsea last month have urged anyone with any information to come forward.

Dwayne, 21, was found injured in Little Garth at around 8.45pm on Saturday, July 7 and, sadly, later died in hospital.

A forensic post-mortem examination found he had been stabbed in the chest.

His family have described him as a “sweet, loving boy” who “loved to laugh”.

His dad Winston said they’re struggling to come to terms with his death: “Every day you wake up and you’re looking through the window thinking he might appear. We’re in pain and we will be for a long time but if we know a bit further what happened we might feel a bit better.”

He was the youngest of three children. His sister Sophia says she still can’t believe he’s gone: “When you’re all growing up as a family you don’t imagine one of you isn’t going to make it, that one of you is going to be here especially the youngest. You don’t expect someone to take him from you like that.”

His brother Alton Brown, who is a martial artist training to compete in the 2020 Olympics, said the news of Dwayne’s death was a complete shock: “My mum called me and the first thing she said was ‘I’m really sorry Alton but Dwayne’s not with us any more’ and I cannot describe how sick I felt. My stomach just fell out. I couldn’t think straight. I called my wife, she had a real soft spot for Dwayne so she was in tears on the phone. It hurts so much to think there’s people out there who think it’s ok to do something like this. Since Dwayne’s died I feel like my heart has literally stopped. We’re going about our business and doing all the things we have to but actually there’s a big part of me that just feels frozen really.”

His mum Jackie has pleaded for anyone with any information about her son’s death to come forward: “That person could go out and do the same to somebody else. It could be your child, it could be your cousin, it could be someone dear to you. We really miss our Dwayne and we’re never going to have him back again, we only have the memories. That’s my youngest child, 21 years-old, I wouldn’t wish this on anyone else.

Senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Stuart Truss said: “We are pursuing a number of lines of enquiry into Dwayne’s death and some of those are giving us some really important leads. However, I still need the help of the public. There are members of the community out there who I know will have the answers I need, there will be people who know exactly what happened, they’ll know the people responsible and those are the people who I need to speak to. I understand there’ll be people out there who don’t want to come forward out of fear or even some kind of loyalty. However, what I need them to understand is that there’s a grieving family who need answers. I need people out there to come forward to help me get those answers for Dwayne’s family. That can be done in privately and in confidence and if you don’t feel comfortable speaking to the police you can always contact Crimestoppers anonymously.”