Two weeks after the nation was plunged into shock and outrage by the brutal murders of a mother and her four children in Cocoa Piece, Clarendon, Jamaicans awoke Monday to news of another act of savagery in the same parish.
The body of 67-year-old housekeeper Pamela “Pam” Gregory was discovered about 7:00 am at the house she shared with her husband in the Lionel Town Housing Scheme.
Her throat was slashed.
Up to press time Monday evening no one had been charged in connection with the gruesome killing of the bedridden woman.
Her 69-year-old husband remained in custody.
Their grandson, who was reportedly injured during the incident, remained hospitalised.
For much of the day, residents refused to discuss the incident. They kept their distance from the media, peering over their fences but unwilling to talk.
Sources said that the grandson, who was home with the couple, received a troubling call from his uncle in Aruba, indicating that his grandmother had just been killed. His uncle said he had received a phone call with the news, according to police sources.
The police said after speaking with his uncle, the grandson went to his grandparents’ bedroom and knocked. His grandfather, the police said, opened the door and the grandson saw his grandmother on the bed bleeding from the neck.
The police said he attempted to enter the room; however his grandfather prevented him from entering. He then went to another door, kicked it open, and entered the room.
His grandfather, the police said, allegedly attacked him with a knife. The grandson held on to the knife and used a piece of board to hit the elderly man on his head in a bid to subdue him. The younger man later realised that during the attack he had sustained a knife wound to his right middle finger.
Residents and police assisted the grandson and took him and his grandfather to Lionel Town Hospital. They were treated and then taken to the police station.
The incident comes 13 days after the bodies of Kemisha Wright and her four children: 15-year-old Kimana Smith, 10-year-old Shemari Smith, five-year-old Kafana Smith, all girls, and 23-month-old son Kishaun Henry were found at their house in Cocoa Piece in the parish.
The woman’s cousin, Rushane Barnett, has been charged in connection with the killings which have triggered outrage across the country and reignited the fierce on-again, off-again debate on capital punishment after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions last week served a death penalty notice on Barnett when he appeared in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston.
