A teen is the prime suspect in the death of 14-year-old Raven Wilson of Top Road St Ann’s Bay, St Ann.
Investigations by the North Coast Times and conversations with several people aware of the police probe reveal that up to Sunday, October 28 police had the teen in their custody. A major breakthrough was expected to be announced Monday, October 29.
The 14-year-old Ocho Rios High School student was reported missing Friday evening, October 18, after she did not return home or make contact with any relative. On Sunday morning, just after daybreak, her body was found stuffed in a large plastic bag. She was in her school uniform and had a wound to the face. The body was found several chains from her house in bushes near a ravine on the sloping land overlooking the St Ann capital.
News of the death shocked the nation.
St Ann police have been very nervous over details in the case or even of labelling anyone a “suspect” or of having been “arrested” because of fears that there would likely be mob violence to members of the family at which people have been pointing fingers.
Last week Tuesday, dozens of people gathered outside a house near to where the girl’s body was found Sunday, October 21. They had accused the family of being involved in and covering up for the death of the girl.
Police were rushed to the scene and appealed to people to allow the investigations to go on.
The people’s anger and mood were fortressed by reports that the girl’s bag was found close to the house where they claim she was killed. They argued that the bag was not found on Sunday though the area had been thoroughly searched and hence it was thrown out to get rid of evidence. Also reports began to emerge that a foot of Raven’s shoes was found nearby the day before her body was found.
“We want this situation to be handled properly…we don’t want anybody jumping to conclusions,” a senior officer told the North Coast Times, Wednesday when three people were picked up by the police, in connection with the murder.
Police anxiety was based on two mob murders in recent time in the parish. In the first Orville ‘Bull’ Scarlett, accused of killing a woman and her son in Linton Park, Watt Town, was beaten and chopped to death at the end of August.
Then a youth, accused of molesting a six-year-old in St Ann’s Bay, was stabbed and beaten to death at the Toll Road Round about Old Fort Bay, near St Ann’s Bay the very Sunday young Raven’s body was found. He is 21-year-old Akeem Harrison, of St Ann’s Bay and Kingston
On the day that the threatening crowds advanced on a house in Top Road, police picked up three people for questioning, two of them from the household. Police were even afraid at the time of saying they had made arrests, fearing any report of such would lead to people assuming guilt and triggering a mob attack.
But on Thursday, October 25, police reported they had taken in three people for questioning. They did not give any details, except to say the youths were picked up on Market Street, St Ann’;s Bay. The location was given, apparently not to link them to the family at which fingers were being pointed on Top Road.
On Friday the three were released but by then two others were taken in.
Reports to the North Coast Times are that one of those held confessed to the killing of the girl. However police were not satisfied with the events as stated by the person who “confessed”.
An earlier theory that a woman was involved in the killing of Raven came apart at the seams because an alleged sex-involved rejection would have resulted in more violence to the girl. It was also stated that the body would not end up at Top Road if the events first stated had taken place. It had been claimed Raven was seen with an older woman Saturday but those claims appear to have been false.
Raven’s last hours
Here is what we understand happened.
Raven left for school on Friday, October 19 and didn’t end up there.
That has left several questions about where she was.
Unconfirmed reports said she was allegedly seen in the St Ann’s Bay Bus Park and at a beach in Priory, near St Ann’s Bay, with a female that same Friday.
However others believe she may not have left the town that day. Raven was unable to pick up money left for her by her father that afternoon. Now, there are concerns she was in captivity or hurt by Friday afternoon
The post mortem will be crucial as it will determine not just at what time she died but, crucial to police investigations, also whether the last meal she had was her breakfast on Friday.
The belief is that the wound to her face could well have been an accident or the result of a rash action not intended to kill her.
Police sources say that even if one person killed Raven, the person would have needed assistance to dump her body.
That’s why people, including the girl’s family, are so angry that police did not enter and search a house to which they pointed saying Raven might have been there Friday night.
Police were denied entry, when they went to the house Saturday, October 20 but critics have argued they should have left a guard there and gone and got a search warrant. And, to compound that failure, they did not cordon off the house and search it even on Sunday after the body was found nearby.
Police work has been made more difficult by the fact that after people found the body they went back to the scene walking all over it and cutting shrubbery, which is how they came upon the school bag on Tuesday.
By this time they wanted to take things into their own hands. It’s police presence that held them back.
