The murders of two cousins in the rural community of Higgin Town, St Ann, in two separate incidents a day apart are not related.
This according to the St Ann police and a family member of those killed.
Bernard Tulloch’s sister, 33-year-old Terry Bowen was discovered at her house, where she lived alone, stabbed to death and also raped on Tuesday morning, December 27.
A day later, the body of her cousin, 25-year-old Orlando Lewis was discovered with gunshot wounds on the Geddes Road in the Higgin Town community.
Reports from the St Ann’s Bay police are that at about 6:58 a.m., on Wednesday, December 28, residents heard loud explosions coming from a section of the community.
Residents later summoned the police and on their arrival, Lewis, who was said to be a construction worker, was seen lying on the roadway with several gunshot wounds to his body.
He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
There are speculations about why Lewis was killed with some even suggesting he might have known who the person was who raped and killed Bowen. That theory suggests he was killed to be silenced. There are also other accusations about why he was killed.
In an interview with The Times last Friday, Mr Tulloch repeated police claims that the murders were not related in any way.
He described Lewis as a quiet young man.
“He (Lewis) is a quiet and good little yute enuh. I don’t know him as a yute in any problems. Him pass and him call to us. Him go and do him little mason work or him pass with them other guys and go do him farming. It was kind of strange that them would a just kill him so,” Mr Tulloch explained.
COMMUNITY STILL TENSE
Mr Tulloch explained that the community was scared weeks after the murders in the area.
“A lot of people scared. Even some of the taxi-man dem nuh want come up here when it ketch certain hours,” Mr Tulloch lamented.
He argued that it was not the first that something like this was happening in the community and some of the crimes had remained unsolved.
“Mi just a hope that them find the killers in both killings,” Mr Tulloch explained.
In the meantime, The Times tried to get a comment from Lewis’ immediate family members, but they were not willing to speak on his killing.
A community member in the area, John Tennyson reflected briefly on Lewis and described him as a loving person.
“Orlando (Lewis) was a loving person. He got along with everybody and he was a respectful youth. Him get along well with everybody young and old,” Tennyson explained.
In the meantime, the St Ann police have made no breakthrough in the murders of Terry Bowen and Orlando Lewis.
The police had taken a suspect into custody in relation to Bowen’s murder, but he has not been charged as investigations are ongoing.
The police are also still probing Lewis’ murder.
