FAMILY ANGRY, LASH POLICE, UP REWARD TO $1-M
ST ANN’S BAY, St Ann
May 1, 2024
On Monday, May 1, 2023, 34-year-old Javan Dickenson, also called Bigga, a taxi driver from St Ann, disappeared without a trace.
A year on he has still not been located.
His family members are hurting, confused, and desperate for answers.
Javan Dickenson was a kind, trusting, fun-loving young man who kept close to his family, including his mother for whom he provided care in Lime Hall, near St Ann’s Bay. He lived in Runaway Bay. He was also close to his daughter and his siblings.
His family members say Dickenson was well-known and well-liked and did charters for many people on the route he plied between St Ann’s Bay and Lime Hall.
The last time he was seen, he was driving a 2017 blue Toyota Probox taxi.
His two sisters and close family friends helped launch three searches for him, one including the police. They turned up nothing.
One of his sisters said the family is devastated, especially his mother Leslyn Cole.
She is bashing the police investigation saying it has never lived up to the family’s expectation.
“Our mother is concerned, she is distraught…we don’t know where he is or what has happened.”
She says although the family provided information and suggested even how the two phones he had might have helped in tracking his last movements, up to the time Dickenson disappeared, the police didn’t seem to follow through.
The North Coast Times in preparing this story reached out to Senior Superintendent Dwight Powell in charge of St Ann police for a response. SSP Powell said he was making checks with the relevant officers and would provide an update.
One of Mr Dickenson’s sisters said at one stage when they felt the police were not pushing hard enough to try to locate Dickenson or make connections with those who might have been connected with his disappearance they reached out to SSP Powell. They said he did assign an officer but after a few initial calls, they heard nothing more.
One sister however told the North Coast Times that the only police officer who made any serious effort to help was DSP Vassel.
“I am hurt by my brother’s disappearance but I am more hurt by how the police are dealing with it,” she said. “Almost all that has been done has been done by the family.”
They say police failed to show any empathy even after they reached out. One family member said Leslyn Cole, Dickenson’s mother, gave a DNA swab that would help identify him should his body be found.
However, every time a body is found anywhere across Jamaica and they hear of it they get concerned and have to reach out to the police.
“They (police) did not give any form of feedback …or let us say it was not sufficient or timely,” one family member said.
They said Dickenson owned two phones and though they pressed the police to contact the service provers to help with the search and information from the phones regarding his last movements before he disappeared the police did not seem to consider that urgent.
The family is keeping faith and they have now increased to $1 million the reward being offered. This they say is for information leading to making contact with Javan Dickenson or the arrest of anyone who is responsible for him being missing or harmed.
“It is very devastating. There is no closure. We don’t know. He may be suffering somewhere, he may have been trafficked, he may be kidnapped and bound somewhere. We don’t know,” said his sister. ”It’s a great amount of distress on all of us, especially our mom.”
Please also see Newscast #48 on the North Coast Times YouTube channel. Send text to 876-503-9995 or email [email protected]
If you have any information on missing Javan Dickenson please call the St Ann’s Bay police or 119
