Nagra Plunkett, Assignment Coordinator

WESTERN BUREAU:

A puzzling situation is now facing the police in St James and Trelawny as, while persons are going missing in one division unidentified bodies are being discovered in the other.

The Adelphi police in St James are now feverishly searching for a British national who was reported missing on Sunday; and the Clarks Town police in Trelawny are seeking to identify two bodies found yesterday and Sunday.

The British national has been identified as 61-year-old Barbara Jones-Scott, a retired nurse of Brandon Way in Leeds, England.

Call from daughter

"We got a call from her (Jones-Scott's) daughter in England to say she has been calling her mother and not getting any response. So we took the address and made some enquiries at her house in Bullock Heights, Somerton," said Sergeant Wellington Dawkins, subofficer in charge of the Adelphi Police Station. "There is nothing to suggest any foul play as her vehicle and house were properly secured."

It is understood that Jones-Scott was last seen on Friday driving her red Nissan Pathfinder to downtown Montego Bay. However, when the cops managed to get inside Jones-Scott's residence, lights were on and a radio and television were playing. Her travel documents were also found intact. The missing woman arrived in Jamaica in January and was scheduled to leave on April 1.

She is the fourth person to have gone missing in the Adelphi police area since December 2007.

The others are teenagers between ages 16 and 17. The missing teens are Daynia Ewan of Dumfries, last seen on December 29, 2007; Texroy McGrowder, last seen in his home community of Blytheston, near Content, on January 14; and Kimesha Ewan, who disappeared on February 24 from Lima district.

Meanwhile, "about 6:30 this (yesterday) morning, a body that was burnt beyond recognition was found in cane fields at Panarsuss in Clarks Town by a cane cutter," stated Sergeant Andrea Brown, Constabulary Communication Network officer for Trelawny.

An immediate burial was ordered for the body - believed to be that of a female in her mid-20s - following an on-the-spot post mortem. The body had several stab wounds.

Skeletal remains

Human skeletal remains were also found in cane fields at Parnasuss about 8:15 a.m. on Sunday. Reports are that a cane cutter "stumbled upon a human skull and summoned the police".

A further search of the area by investigators reportedly turned up other skeletal remains and a partially burnt pair of slippers. The remains have been sent to the government forensic laboratory for analysis.

nagra.plunkett@gleanerjm.com