Alesia Edwards
The grandmother of a 15-year-old St. Ann girl who disappeared without a trace last year August said she wants the Organised Crime unit of the police force to take over the probe into the disappearance of the teen. Maxine Brown Thompson said she is convinced that her granddaughter Shanel Hurd, Ocho Rios High School student of Mammee Bay in St. Ann was murdered. The grandmother told the North Coast Times last week that she has always had the feeling that her grandchild was murdered and her body dumped although she has no evidence to prove the ‘gut’ feeling. Mrs Brown Thompson said she has made contact with personnel at Organised Crime and she wants them to actively probe the disappearance of Shanel.
The grandmother said she is concerned about information she has been receiving about the male friend Shanel had travelled to Port Maria in St. Mary to visit last August when she disappeared. The woman said she is even more concerned after she made contact with police in St. Ann three weeks ago and was told of yet another version of the story of what happened after Shanel’s visit to the man with whom she was said to be having a relationship.
CHANGING STORY
“Him keep changing him story, I am hearing stories I didn’t hear before,” the grandmother said. She said she is very concerned that the truth about the teen’s disappearance will not come to light if the case is not properly investigated. Mrs Brown Thompson is convinced that her granddaughter who she said would never run away from home was murdered.“We are certain she was murdered,” she said. The grandmother wants the friend to be taken into police custody and properly questioned since he was the last person with Shanel before she went missing.“I am very concerned that he keeps changing his story, he has been telling people different things about what happen that night when he said he put her on a taxi to Ocho Rios..”
WANTS TRUTH
The grandmother said if the matter is properly investigated, the truth will become known.“They just need to investigate the case properly,” she said. Mrs Brown Thompson said life for the family since the girl disappeared has been extremely hard. “It hurt so much, we have no peace. Every day it is just before me and I am really said, almost every day I cry,” she said. Shanel disappeared on August 11, after going to visit her boyfriend in Port Maria St Mary. The boyfriend, believed to be 18, reportedly told police that after her visit, about 11 p.m. he put the teen on a taxi and has not seen her since.Police were doing forensic investigations to determine alleged texting between the two and calls made around the time the girl was said to be last seen by the boyfriend.Shanel was a tenth grade student at Ocho Rios High at the time she went missing. She would have celebrated her 16th birthday on September 22. Mrs Brown Thompson told the North Coast Times that the family is trying very hard to cope and that they have given up all hope that the teen is alive. She said they need closure.
