Robert Lalah, Staff Reporter
Sylvia Baily, the aunt of the slain children, gazes at their graves at the back of her home in Kilancholly, St. Mary. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
IT WAS the event that rocked the entire nation and sent reverberations across the world. Three children, all siblings, hacked to death as they slept in their beds in the little-known district of Kilancholly in the hills of southern St. Mary. The mutilated bodies of Dwayne Davidson 15, Su-Ann Gordon 13, and four-year-old Shanniece Williams were discovered by their mother, Sonia Williams, when she returned from church, just yards away from the home. The brutal murders occurred on the rainy morning of Friday, January 28, 2005.
The woman found the bodies of Dwayne and Su-Ann inside the small house, their throats cut, while little Shanniece was found in a pool of blood at the gate to the yard.
Almost a year has passed since the bloody killings that caught the attention of the world, but for family members and residents of the community, the pain hasn't eased a bit.
The Gleaner paid a visit to Kilancholly on Wednesday, to see how the community was doing, one year later.
The area was quiet, hardly anyone in sight. The news team first went to the home where the incident occurred. There was no one there. There was an eerie stillness and the house seemed exactly as it did a year ago. Even the curtains hanging in the window were the same. The hole in the window that the killer used to gain entry to the house, still had not been repaired.
We met Clarice Graham, who was walking by the house on her way to a grave-digging down the road.
"Sonia (the children's mother) don't live there anymore. She move to St. Andrew," she said. Ms. Graham said the pain of being in the house, and even the community where her children were killed proved too much for the traumatised woman to bear.
TROUBLE COPING
Ms. Graham said she has her own trouble coping with the children's death, even now.
"Just Sunday gone, I got up out of my sleep, washed with sweat. I could just see the children in the house. I don't know when I will get over it," she said. Ms. Graham reflected on the events of the morning when the children's bodies were found.
"It stuck in my mind and gives me nightmares. I remember the mother bawling and I remember the blood." The woman found it hard to look at the house. She turned her back to it as she spoke.
"The community will never forget that. Never," she said, squeezing a rag she had in her hand.
The killer turned out to be Jeffery Perry, a cousin of the children's mother. He is now in police custody awaiting trial, and needless to say, is despised by residents.
"That man is pure evil. He helped the mother put the bodies in the van to take them to the hospital," she said. Ms. Graham said the killer also attended a candlelight vigil held in the children's honour. "That man is Satan himself," she said.
The woman went on her way and the news team went over to the house. Ms. Graham confirmed that even though she moved to St. Andrew, Ms. Williams had changed nothing in the house. She kept it the same and visited from time to time.
There is something about the house that sends shivers up the spine. It was an overcast day and there was a gentle breeze. Otherwise, stillness. There was an open padlock hanging on the back door. Peeking through the window, the news team noticed a few toys strewn around the living room. The woman changed nothing.
Just down the road lives Sylvia Bailey, Ms. Williams' sister and the children's aunt. The news team found her sitting at home alone. She has been having a difficult time trying to cope.
"It's so hard. The children and their mother were living right here in this house up to a month before they were killed. Those children and my son grew up like siblings. I miss them so much," she said.
But Ms. Bailey said it was her son who has been having the most difficult time of all. "He is terrified that someone will come in and kill him when he is sleeping. Sometimes he covers himself, head to toe with the sheet and no matter how he sweats he will not come out," she said. Ms. Bailey said she has thought about getting counselling for the nine-year-old boy, who actually saw the bodies of his dead cousins being taken away from the home in which they were killed.
"He wants to move, but I can't afford it," she said. The woman said the boy isn't the only one who has trouble dealing with the children's killings. "I am terrified. I try not to let him know that. But the truth is that I am just as scared being here," the woman said, playing with a lock on the door of her home. More than anything though, Ms. Bailey misses her nieces and nephew. "They were so lovely and I'm so lonely without them. I don't even go to their home, cause it's too sad. Sometimes I'm alright and it just hits me," she said.
Before the killings, Ms. Bailey taught at a basic school at a nearby church. Shanniece was one of her students. Since the killing, the woman has given up teaching, being unable to cope with having classes without her favourite student. Now, she operates a tiny shop at the back of her house. "I cry during the nights sometimes without even realising it," she said. But the woman will not leave the community. The children were buried in her backyard. "Being here I feel closer to the children. It's hard, but I just can't leave," she said.
The news team visited the graves with Ms. Bailey and her mood took a turn for the worst. We quickly left. Back at the front of the house, she started to feel a bit better.
"If I have it so hard, I don't know what their mother must be feeling. She must be having it hard," she said.
Speaking with The Gleaner via telephone, Sonia Williams confirmed what her sister presumed. "I'm not doing too well. I left the community because I just had to get away. If I was still there, it would kill me. When I see the children coming from school and I remember how mine used to do the same thing, it's too much to bear," she said. The woman said she kept the house the same, because it helped her feel closer to her children. "But I just have to hold unto God and know that he has a purpose for me and for my children. I can't give up hope," she said. Of the children's confessed killer, the woman had this to say: "If they even kill him, that won't help. Because he will be dead and gone and I will still be here bearing the pain alone. I wonder if he realises what he did and if he is really sorry. I try not to even think about him, but sometimes anger gets the better of me," she said. But her faith continues to pull her through. "It's just God why I am here. God will get me through," she said.
