Partner operator from Black River murdered By Pat Roxborough,
Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU: THE SAGA of the get-rich-quick schemes that cropped up in several western parishes last year took a sinister turn yesterday when the police identified the decomposing body of a man as Christopher Malcolm, 32, operator of "Black River Partner Plus" on Hyde Street in the St Elizabeth capital. "It (the plan) operated for about a month. Then he disappeared. The results of the post-mortem have just been completed and our information is that the man is 32-year-old Christopher Malcolm, from Glendevon in St James," said the Constabulary Communication Network's (CCN) man in Hanover, Sergeant Downton Martin yesterday. Malcolm's murder comes against the background of several riots by angry residents of western Jamaica who deposited millions of dollars into several schemes similar to Black River Partner Plus, in the hope of reaping huge returns on their investments. The rioters, who had ignored the Securities Commission's repeated warnings to stay out of the various plans as they were bound to collapse, were not able to get at the operators of the plans as most of them had turned themselves in to the police. The plans established in the western end of the island are conducted on principles which closely resemble the notorious pyramid schemes in the United States which swindled people out of millions of dollars. Malcolm's body was discovered by a farmer in the bushes along the Flint River main road in Hanover last week. It was badly burnt, partially decomposing and had several stab wounds. In the meantime panic has set in among people who used to be employed to the operators of the scheme. "All of them have gone underground," said a policeman yesterday. Among those who can't be found are Venecia "Trying Girl" Walker, one of the operators of the Quick and Reliable Partner Plan in Montego Bay and Lauren Lewis of the Infinitive Partner Plan in the same city.
|
