Mom, son killed in Manchester
Published:Wednesday | January 4, 2023 | 1:45 AMTamara Bailey/Gleaner Writer
CHRISTIANA, Manchester:
After several failed attempts to reach their sister and calls to the police on Tuesday morning, relatives of the victims of a double murder in Providence district, Christiana, Manchester, were left with many unanswered questions and a burden of regret.
According to police, Althea Rowe, a 52-year-old bartender of a Corporate Area address, was visiting her son, 35-year-old son Cleon Palmer, a farmer, in Christiana last Saturday, when they were suspected to have been approached by hoodlums who shot them dead.
The police theorise that the two were killed on the weekend after neighbours confirmed hearing explosions on Saturday.
Rowe’s body was reportedly found in the living room and Palmer’s discovered in a passageway approximately 11 a.m. on Tuesday.
A police source told The Gleaner that Palmer, whose previous address was in Trelawny and later in Papine, St Andrew, was wanted in connection with a number of shooting incidents.
A relative, who wished not to be named, said Palmer was good child who accompanied his younger relatives to school while he lived in Trelawny with his grandmother, but deviated from a sound upbringing as he aged and experienced life in Kingston.
“I can’t believe a this mi come witness. My sister and mi nephew dead. This is what I witness at the start of the new year and just days ahead of my birthday,” a grieving Doreen Rowe said in shock on Tuesday.
“When we come, a the dog we see a guard the bodies. My sister was such a nice person. It is sad to know that she really come here come dead like this. If my sister did call mi and tell mi that she coming here, I would tell her not to … . From mi come here I don’t like this place … . It is sad, but I leave everything in God’s hands because nobody knows what really happen here,” she added.
Residents say that the quiet farming community, which is in the vicinity of Holmwood Technical High School, had never witnessed such an act previously. They are hoping it will not become a trend.