Logan Town, Liberia - The Bishop and founder of both the Salvation Church of God and an academic school located in Logan Town, Bushrod Island, was on Sunday killed at around mid-night at his residence in the community.
Bishop John Alfred Quao, a Ghanaian national with three children was stabbed several times in his abdomen and upper left chest by men allegedly wearing masks and bearing knives and machetes.
Bishop Quao had been residing in Liberia for several years before establishing the Salvation Church of God, and the Salvation School in Logan Town, where he also served as a principal.
The Bishop's wife is said to have traveled to Ghana on family matters when he met his untimely demise. And his three children were also said to have been asleep in their residence in the compound of the Salvation school few meters away from their father's dwelling.
Hundreds of Bishop Quao's Salvation Church of God congregation, students and sympathizers wailed as they stared at his remains at dawn on Monday. The Bishop was widely respected and admired by community members as well as students for his "compassion and love for everyone".
The motive for the murder has not been established up to press time, but reports gathered from the crime scene revealed that the armed men did not take away any item from the Bishop's residence.
According to those who have access to the Bishop's residence, after the murder occurred, the Bishop's laptop, two cell-phones and an unspecified amount of money which were most likely visible to the armed men were left behind in the living room.
"Look at the floors, you see the Bishop's blood all over the place; they grabbed him at the door and stabbed him right there; you are a journalist; so I want you to see the actual thing in order to give an accurate report because this country has become so bad that anyone can grab you from your house and kill you," an angry eyewitness said.
A man (houseboy), whom the Bishop allegedly brought in from Ghana to run his domestic errands narrated that during the heavy down pour of rain on Sunday night, a woman whose identity remains a mystery up to now knocked at the Bishop's door; wailing loudly and called on him to open his door so that he would pray for her ailing child.
"Bishop, my child is sick; please help me pray for my child", the woman was quoted as pleading with the Bishop, the houseboy narrated.
The houseboy said, "when the Bishop opened the door, four big men entered the house and the woman disappeared". The houseboy's identity was not made known due to security restrictions at the scene.
He further explained that following the fatal stabbing of the Bishop, the woman disappeared without any trace as the armed men sped off on a waiting motor-cycle.
The houseboy, appearing dejected, also disclosed that the armed men wore masks with no traces of identification. "When I saw the Bishop's body dangling, I immediately alerted neighbors and ran to the police Zone 1 Depot 3 and reported the incident".
Following preliminary examination by the police, the remains of the late Bishop was taken to the St. Moses Funeral Parlous in Gardnersvile, as investigation regarding the motive for murder is ongoing.
It was gathered that prior to Bishop Quao's murder, he and some members of the Salvation Church of God held a lengthy meeting on Sunday, principally on financial matters, but with no concrete agreement.