TRAGEDY IN TROY

WESTERN BUREAU:

Merle Williams, the maternal grandmother who raised 10-year-old Shani Coke from birth, yesterday recounted the agonising hours spent searching for the child after sending her to a nearby shop on Tuesday afternoon.

At the same time, Williams’ daughter, Akeem Williams, was overcome with grief and broke down in tears during an interview, unable to speak about the loss of her daughter.

“I sent her to the shop about 3:30,” her grandmother recalled. “When four o’clock came and she never come back, me say, ‘No man, something wrong.’”

The elderly woman said Shani, whom she described as a bright, loving child, had lived with her all her life and was rarely away from home for long.

She said neighbours confirmed the child had reached the shop located in Tire district, Troy, Trelawny, and was seen walking back carrying her purchases. Some even waved to her as she made her way home.

Realising something was wrong, family members alerted the residents, who began searching shortly after 4 p.m.

Around three to four hours later came the discovery no family should ever have to make.

Shani’s remains were found in bushes off a roadway in the Troy community, her throat slashed and her small body ravaged by someone who had clearly raped her.

“When you see her, all you could say was, ‘Jesus’,” her grandmother said quietly. “I couldn’t believe it. I was frightened and shocked.”

Williams said she tried to touch her granddaughter, hoping to close her eyes which were wide open,

“Shani was such a polite, intelligent child who excelled at school, attended church and was loved throughout the community.

“Everywhere she go, people love her,” the grieving grandmother said. “She was very friendly.”

Shani’s father, Ashton ‘Junior’ Coke, was just as haunted by the knowledge his 10-year-old daughter had been taken from him.

Coke said he received the devastating telephone call shortly before 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening.

“I was terrified,” he said. “I didn’t even know myself.”

Unable to bring himself to approach the scene where his daughter’s body lay, he remained on the roadway until almost midnight.

“I miss my daughter very much,” he told The Gleaner visited the solemn community on Wednesday. It was definitely not business as usual. A promising youngster had been murdered, and a mob that sought jungle justice had taken things into their own hands, killing a suspect, Delroy Coke, and hospitalising his father, Maxwell Coke.

“Morning and evening Shani would stop by to check on me,” her father continued.

He recalled helping Shani with her homework after school and said she often visited him at his small hardware store, eager to tell him about her day in class.

“She was doing well in school,” he said. “She never got a chance to live.”

Her father said he had long worried about his daughter’s safety, because of a man living in the community, and had repeatedly urged her grandmother not to send the child anywhere alone. Those concerns intensified because the route home included a lonely stretch of roadway after the last few houses.

The police have since confirmed that the man who was later killed by an angry mob, Delroy Coke, was not seen committing the crime. However, investigators said residents inferred he was responsible because of his criminal history.

According to police, Delroy Coke was a convicted sexual offender who had previously been arrested for buggery in Portland in 2014, sexual touching of a child in Trelawny in 2017, and another buggery offence in Trelawny in 2019. He served five years at the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre for the 2019 conviction before being released in August 2025.

Following Shani’s death, an enraged mob fatally attacked Delroy Coke. His father, Maxwell Coke, was also assaulted and remains hospitalised in Clarendon.

The police are continuing investigations into Shani’s murder and the subsequent mob killing; while a man suspected to be part of the mob was arrested on Wednesday.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com