Melissa Charley and Nagra Plunkett, Gleaner Writers
Enid Gordon, 15-year-old murder victim. - CONTRIBUTED
A lot of children have been killed in a short space of time, quite a few. I believe it has gone over 12 in the last two months...
WHEN 66-YEAR-OLD Leebert Gordon stumbled upon the body of his 15-year-old daughter, Enid, stuffed into the mouth of a shallow grave, a few metres from his home, he screamed - a piercing wail that shook the community of Content to its very core.
She had been strangled with her school tie, and her body was still attired in her school uniform. She was a fourth-form student of the Petersfield High School.
The police confirmed that on October 20 last year, Enid was raped by two men in the district where she lived. The men were arrested but are now out on bail. They were ordered by the Resident Magistrate to remove themselves from the area. The matter which is in the Withorn Resident Magistrate's Court, was set for hearing on October 18. Yesterday the police said there are no leads to connect the two incidents. Both men have voluntarily handed themselves in to the Withorn police for questioning.
When The Gleaner news team arrived at the Savanna-la-mar police station, a reporter saw a catatonic-looking Mr. Gordon, obviously shaken and distraught by the experience. He sat disconsolately in a chair at the Savanna-la-mar police station, a portrait of a desperate grief too great for words. He just stared straight ahead, eyes haunted, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, too overcome by the horror of his daughter's death to speak or even cry.
Residents of Content District in Westmoreland share his pain, horror and disgust at the brutal murder of the teenager.
Reports are that at 9:00 a.m on Wednesday, Enid left her home dressed in her school uniform en route to the Savanna-la-mar public hospital to visit her brother who is a patient at the institution. She should have met her mother and father at the hospital before going to school in time for the afternoon shift. However, she never made it to the hospital. It was later discovered that she was not present at school.
When her parents arrived home at 7:00 p.m, they became concerned that she had not returned home as she was not usually tardy. Her father, Leebert Gordon, a 66-year-old farmer reported the matter to the Withorn Police. A search was launched but proved futile.
The search was restarted early Thursday morning and at 5:30 a.m, Mr. Gordon stumbled upon the body of his daughter laying on her back.
Mr. Gordon raised an alarm and the police were summoned. Upon the arrival of the police they observed that Enid's school tie was wrapped around her neck. There were no other visible marks on her body.
The body was taken to the Savanna-la-mar Hospital, then removed to the Doyleys Funeral Home for a post mortem.
ALARMING MURDERS
This is the third child murder to have occurred in the parish this year. Two young girls, Shaneka Shakes, nine, and her friend, Shauna-Kay Ledgister, eight, were found raped and murdered in a cane field in the Town Head district in Burnt Savannah in July. In the Corporate Area, there have been a rash of murders involving children, a three-month old child was killed in Mountain View last month, and just last week, 10-year-old Sasha Kay Brown was burned to death after her house on Barnes Avenue in the Maxfield area was firebombed by armed thugs.
"A lot of children have been killed in a short space of time, quite a few, I believe it has gone over 12 in the last two months, clearly, we are very concerned, and we will be going on a retreat as an agency to see what we can do about it," said Allison Anderson, head of the Child Development Agency.
