Glenroy Sinclair
and Robert Lalah, Staff Reporters
Assistant Commissioner of Police George Williams (left
background), Acting DSP Michael Phipps (foreground), and other senior police officers search bushes in Greenwich Farm, Kingston, for the bodies of two missing women who were
abducted and raped on Thursday night and are presumed killed. Blood was found in the bushes during the search. - IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A VIGOROUS police search is now on for the bodies of two of three women who were abducted, raped, robbed and their bodies presumed to be dumped in the sewage main of the Greenwich Town treatment plant, which empties into the Kingston Harbour.
Equipped yesterday with sticks and shovels, members of the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID), Area 4, Hunts Bay and the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) Head-quarters were kept busy, scouring sinkholes and searching the bushes beyond the Tinson Pen Aerodrome, which leads back on to Spanish Town Road, near the examination depot, for the bodies of the women.
FORENSIC EXPERTS
"We found blood along the trail and forensic experts are now trying to establish if it is a human sample," said Superinten-dent Corneilius 'Calf' Walker, head of the Area 4 CIB.
Acting Deputy Superintendent Michael Phipps, who is assisting the investigation, said the police have so far seized two cars in which the gunmen were travelling. They are being processed for possible evidence by forensic detectives.
According to the police, three gunmen held up patrons at a bar on First Street, Greenwich Town, shortly after 8:30 p.m. on Thursday. The men proceeded to rob the patrons and before leaving, abducted three women, including the bartender.
It is alleged that the men took the women to a dark, grassy area, near the Greenwich Town playing field, where they were joined by other men. The women were reportedly savagely raped, then thrown into a hole.
The gunmen thought all three were dead, but one of the women crawled out of the hole when they left and ran for help.
"We will have to request the assistance of the coast guard to help with the search," Assistant Commissioner George Williams told his team of investigators at the scene. He believes that if the bodies were dumped in the sewerage main, they might have washed up in the Kingston Harbour.
SHEER BRUTALITY
In the meantime, women's organisations reacted with
horror at the sheer brutality of the rape and possible murders of the women. Hilary Nicholson of Women's Media Watch
yesterday denounced the perpetrators of the violent crime and called on the State to implement immediate measures to combat the increasing incidence of
violence against women.
"Innocent women and children are being gunned down, maimed and raped simply because they are easier targets than their relatives or boyfriends," she said.
She referred to yesterday's events as "war crimes" and noted that they merit emergency responses by the State.
Betty-Ann Blaine, convenor of the Hear the Children's Cry Initiative, was obviously distressed when she heard of the incident. She said, however, that as upsetting as it was, no one should be surprised.
"This is where the society has been going for some time. Gunmen no longer discern between women, children or the elderly. Instead, they have become the main targets," she said. Mrs. Blaine added that the State needs to provide better protection for the nation's women and children.
