THE PITS of death on Fourth Avenue and Jacques Road in Vineyard Town mark a dark and gruesome descent of a once peaceful community. As a dumping ground for murder victims, this Mountain View Avenue area is adding another chapter of notoriety, having been racked with factional conflict political and otherwise in recent times.
The police face a challenge to their forensic and investigative skills in trying to establish the identities of persons from the skeletal remains which have been found. We assume that the requisite hi-tech tools are at their disposal or are readily available from the international ties now in place.
Discovery of the pits came during the search for Mrs. Yvonne Beaumont Walters and her nephew Jeffery Beaumont, who were abducted last Friday night near Annette Crescent in Upper St. Andrew, and whose bodies with gunshot wounds were found in one of the pits.
The circumstances of how these latest victims were killed have added to the mood of apprehension and fear which the pall of crime has inflicted on the society. Indications that they were trailed and finally attacked must be a warning to every motorist to exercise due caution at all times.
As the police have theorised the pits appear to be dumping grounds for persons who are kidnapped and then killed. The excavations have so far yielded remains of seven victims.
It is frightening to contemplate the reality that we have persons in our society who are so callous in their disregard for human life that they can carry out acts of such frightening brutality.
The pit on Fourth Avenue is said to be at an abandoned housing scheme. The other on Jacques Road is in a busy bustling community. Both locations are close to communities and it is difficult to believe that nobody was aware of what was happening.
We urge the law-abiding citizens in both areas to provide any useful information that they might have that could assist the police in finding the perpetrators of these gruesome acts.
The society will breathe a lot easier when criminals who are as vicious and as callous as these appear to be are brought to justice.
