ENGLISH
THE ABDUCTION of 50-year-old Christine English, a resident of Craig Hill in St. Andrew on Monday night, has rattled residents of the Gordon Town community, and emotionally devastated family members.
The kidnappers are reportedly demanding a $6 million ransom for her return.
"I cannot say anything as yet... I cannot do any interviews," husband Bruce English, a contractor, said yesterday.
Christine English is the director of social marketing and fund-raising of the Jamaica AIDS Support (JAS). Ian McKnight, a director of the JAS, said he would not comment on the situation.
SHOCKING INCIDENT
The incident follows closely on the heels of a shocking incident involving the abduction and murder of Lollette Salmon, girlfriend of Negril hotelier Jimmy Jackson, who was kidnapped by gunmen at the gate of her family's home shortly after returning from an overseas trip on Friday. She was found burnt to death the following day.
Superintendent Wrenford Robinson of the St. Andrew North police, who was conducting operations late last night, assured the public "We are working on it, right now, we are working on a number of leads."
"They (the kidnappers) have been in touch but we have nothing yet," he said.
Yesterday, a Gleaner news team went to Craig Hill in Gordon Town to speak to residents about the incident. Most were tight-lipped, and seemed genuinely frightened by the news of the abduction.
Craig Hill is a small, tightly-knit farming district sandwiched by the communities of Dublin Castle and Dublin Close, and lies within a six-minute drive away from the police station at Gordon Town.
"This is a very quiet area, nothing much ever happens here, this is a big shock to me," a man seated outside a former furniture factory not far from the English's home, told The Gleaner, yesterday.
He admitted that he had known Mrs. English for over a decade and that 'she is a lovely, kind woman'.
Heavily armed guards from a local security company stood outside the premises. Plainclothes police officers milled around as well. As The Gleaner news team drove around the community, it also spotted a number of unmarked police cars roaming the area.
Four years ago, gas station operator Sylvia Edwards was killed after a $300,000 ransom was not paid to her kidnappers. The Joel Andem gang was reportedly behind that abduction.
Kidnappings have become a cottage industry in the twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago where there were 48 kidnappings for ransom in the year 2003.
"Kidnappings for ransom are a prevalent crime in Trinidad but thankfully, it has not yet begun to be anywhere as prevalent in Jamaica. In these cases, the more resources which are at hand, and the higher the level of sensitivity and the training of the police, the higher the success rate," Mr. John P. Azar, managing director of KingAlarms Services, said yesterday.
