BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE remains of a human being was this afternoon (Mar. 3) discovered in the Boat Yard at the C.A. Paul Southwell Industrial Park.
According to a release from the Police Press and Public Relations Officer, Inspector Lyndon David, sometime after 5:00 p.m. today police had responded to a report of the discovery of human remains.
He noted that the identity of the person is unknown at this time, but the bones and other items found at the scene were taken into custody for analysis.
The PRO also informed that investigations into the discovery are ongoing.
This is not the first human remains to be discovered in St. Kitts over a five-year period.
On Wednesday, February 2008, a resident of Palmetto Point had discovered the skeletal remains of what he believed were that of a human.
The discovery was made while the resident was on his regular routine of tending his livestock, and his belief was confirmed on the following day by a District Medical Officer, but he (the DMO) and the police were unable to ascertain to whom they belonged.
According to the then Police Press and Public Relations Officer, Inspector Cromwell Henry, “The remains were removed and kept for further forensic examination to establish identity and possible cause of death.”
Henry told this media house that forensic testing would have been conducted on the bones locally in an effort to establish the identity and cause of death. He however informed that should the task prove greater than the relevant authorities in the Federation, alternative measures would have been employed.
This was followed by the unearthing of the skeleton remains of a human on a construction site east of the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in West Farm on Tuesday, January 25, 2011.
This publication had learnt that while workers of DCK International Construction Company were preparing the foundation for construction of a building next to the University, the skull of a human being surfaced after they dug some three feet into the ground.
An informed source had said that further digging revealed additional human remains, which, like the skull, seemed to be those of an infant.
Police had taken the remains into custody and the then PRO, Inspector Vaughan Henderson, had told this media house that “officers from the Crime Scene Department collected the remains and took them into police custody for further analysis and investigation, while officers from the CID interviewed a number of construction workers and professional staff of Ross University who were all of the opinion that the skeletal remains were akin to that of an archeological find”.
He also said that efforts were being made to get scientists from Ross University, in collaboration with the St. Christopher National Trust, to determine the origin and age of the remains.
On Sunday, October 14, 2012, another discovery was made. That time it was at South Friar’s Bay Beach in the vicinity of the Shipwreck Beach Bar and Grill.
A press release issued by the Police Public Relations Office had stated that on the day in question, during the passage of Tropical Storm Rafael, “officers of Frigate Bay Police Station, CID, and Crime Scene Unit responded to a report at Friar’s Bay, South East Peninsula that a partial skull and partial rib cage were washed ashore.
These remains, like the others, were taken into police custody for further analysis.
And on Thursday, June 14, 2012, another set of remains were discovered in a 180-foot well within a tall-grassy patch of land in the White Gate area in Dieppe Bay.
Five days after, police had confirmed that the burnt remains were those of 17-year-old Jakeel Alford of Willets Project in St. Paul’s Village.
SKNVibes had learnt that the teenager was positively identified by the fingerprints of one of his hands that was not entirely destroyed when the body was burnt.
Three men were charged with his murder but the charges against them were withdrawn at the Preliminary Inquiry after being incarcerated close to eight months in Her Majesty’s Prison.
Meanwhile, over the past four-plus years, six young men from the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis had gone missing without a trace and family members are still grappling with the reality of the situation.
The six young men are Kasim ‘Dula’ Maynard of Pond’s Extension, St. Kitts; Keita Williams, whose address was given as Newtown, St. Kitts; Andrew ‘Spinal’ Samuel Jr. of Conaree Village, St. Kitts; Leslie ‘One Pack’ Jeffers of hermitage Village, Cayon, St. Kitts; Dylon Clarke of Church Ground, Nevis; and Kevaughn Pemberton of Old Road, St. Kitts.
Maynard and Williams were reported missing on Tuesday, February 19, 2008; Samuel Jr. on Thursday, June 25, 2009; Jeffers on Tuesday, February 28, 2012; Clarke on Saturday, April 28, 2012; and Pemberton went missing on Monday, June 18, 2012.
The question currently being asked is…“Apart from Jakeel Alford's and the remains found in the vicinity of Ross University, can the others be those of some of the individuals who went missing without a trace?”
