Former J'can athlete found dead in Atlanta

From Derrick Scott, Freelance Writer

ATLANTA, Georgia, USA:

PATRICE PEART, 26, a former Jamaican athlete from Manning's School, Savanna-la-Mar, and Darliston, Westmoreland, was found dead here Monday.

A colleague went to check on her after she had not reported for work at the Georgia Department for Juvenile Justice and discovered her body at her Darlington apartment on 2025 Peachtree Road.

According to the Atlanta police, she had been dead for four or five days and it is believed that she was strangled. A police spokesperson said, "It does not appear as if there was any forced entry into her seventh-floor apartment".

The police said they were trying to contact her boyfriend, a former policeman from the Bahamas, for questioning about her death.

The Jamaican community in Atlanta was shocked by Miss Peart's death.

She grew up in Darliston and attended Manning's School where she excelled in track and field. She was awarded a scholarship to a Texas university and she later moved to Atlanta to attend another university.

Yesterday, her mother, Mrs. Gloria Peart, principal of Barneyside All-Age School, speaking from her home in Darliston, told The Gleaner that she last saw Patrice five weeks ago in Atlanta.

"I became suspicious that something was wrong when I called on Saturday and Sunday and obtained the busy signal. I called back on Monday and still did not get a reply. That's when I called her place of employment and was informed that she had not been to work since the Friday.

"I asked one of her colleagues to go to her apartment," a distraught Mrs. Peart said.

Arrangements are being made to have the body flown to Jamaica.

Mr. Vin Martin, Jamaica's Honorary Consul in Atlanta, expressed condolences to the family on behalf of the Jamaican community in Atlanta.

Mrs. Margaret Foster-Amos, president of the New York chapter of the Manning's School, said the organisation was willing to offer some financial help to the family.

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