WESTERN BUREAU:
THE POLICE have ruled out foul play in the death of former East Central St. James Member of Parliament Geoffrey Roach, who was found dead in the western parish on Sunday morning with his licensed firearm clutched in one hand and a bottle of rum near the other hand.
"Preliminary investigation would suggest suicide as his personal effects, his gun and his car were all found at the scene intact," a source at the Montego Bay Freeport Police Station told The Gleaner yesterday (Monday). "We have also learnt that he was having business and health problems, which could have pushed him over the edge."
The 64-year-old Roach, who was a prominent member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government which ruled Jamaica from 1983 to 1989, reportedly left his Irwindale home on Saturday afternoon for an unknown destination. When he did not return home as expected that night, his family immediately became concerned for his well-being. When nothing was heard from him on Sunday morning, family members launched a search for him. Roach's body was subsequently found in a secluded spot in the Moorport area of the parish, where friends and family members said he frequently went to shoot birds.
