Residents believe remains to be those of Jakeel Alford
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE remains of an unidentified individual was today (June 14) discovered in a 180-foot well within a tall-grassy patch of land in the White Gate area in Dieppe Bay.
On arrival at the scene at approximately 10:50 this morning, SKNVibes had observed a large crowd of people from St. Paul’s and neighbouring villages gathered on the island main road with a platoon of soldiers from the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force and officers of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police protecting a crime scene, while members of the Crime Scene Unit were conducting investigations at an abandoned well some 80 yards south of the thoroughfare.
Speaking with Police Press and Public Information Officer Sergeant Stephen Hector, this publication was told that while conducting a joint operation in the White Gate area, police officers and soldiers discovered a burnt area that aroused their suspicion of an illegal activity.
“Earlier this morning, sometime before 10 o’clock, officers of the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force, whilst on a joint operation with officers from the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force, came across an area in the White Gate area close to the mill some 250 feet away from the main road.
“On that site in question, we found an area that had a burnt patch and also a well in which examinations are currently ongoing with regards to the find. But I can report at this stage that we have asked for assistance from the Fire and Rescue Services. They have been summoned to the scene and we are about to do some rappelling in that location to actually retrieve and try to identify what may be suspected down at the bottom of that well.”
Hector noted that preliminary estimates of the well seemed to suggest that it was over 150 feet deep and that was the reason for assistance from the firemen.
“I can also report that between the well and burnt area, we have found some body articles that was later denoted to be human remains, and was actually identified as human remains by our forensic examiner Lieutenant Alexander,” he added.
Asked if the remains were those of missing 17-year-old Jakeel Alford of Willets Project in St. Paul’s, Hector said, “I cannot say that it is in fact the remains of the person in question because sufficient examination has not yet been done.”
It is however believed by many residents within the St. Paul’s community that the remains are those of Alford.
Some residents claimed that on numerous occasions over the past three days they had seen a black dog belonging to the teenager wandering in the general area where the remains were found.
“That,” one individual said, “was a clear indication that the dog had picked up the scent of its owner, but because of the remains being burnt and thrown in the well the dog could not possibly locate him.”
According to the teen’s brother, Meshach Alford, he and other family members as well as friends were searching for him from the evening they had learnt he had gone missing.
Meshach told this media house that searches were conducted in many areas including that in which the unidentified human remains were found, but he never had the faintest idea that something of that nature was within the well.
From the obvious signs of grief and discomfiture written on the faces of Meshach, his younger brother, sister and his mother, who were all present at the scene, many onlookers concluded that they too believed the remains are those of Jakeel Alford.
This media house enquired of family members if, given the opportunity, they would be able to successfully identify any of the remains to be that of Jakeel even though the body was burnt, to which they said they might only be able to do that from a broken right front tooth.
None of them were however given that opportunity, as a senior member of the Police Force informed that that was the police’s duty.
At approximately 1:30 p.m. a section from the Fire and Rescue Services arrived at the scene and one of them rappelled down the well where he located the remains.
SKNVibes learnt that the body seemed to have been dismembered before being burnt and thrown into the well, because the remains had to be placed in a number of buckets and taken to the surface where members of the Crime Scene Unit conducted further investigations.
Upon completion of their task, the firemen left the area at about 4:30 p.m. and the District Medical Officer, Dr. Akin Oduntan, was summoned to the scene to make his pronouncement on the remains.
And sometime after 5:00 p.m. undertakers from Jenkins Funeral Home drove a pick-up onto the crime scene, removed the remains that were placed in plastic bags and transferred them into a waiting hearse, which they took to Basseterre under police escort.
Sergeant Hector informed this media house that more information on the remains would be provided following a forensic identification process which might include dental data.
Jakeel Alford, a former student of Verchild’s High School, has been missing since Thursday (June 7) and, according to his Meshach, he was last seen on that day at approximately 6:30 p.m. “riding his bicycle heading up the mountain”.
