Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
IT'S EVERY family's fear --- that chilling late-night telephone call or the unexpected appearance of law enforcement officers at their home.
Last Saturday when Allecea Campbell saw three members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force team at the gate of her home in Molynes Gardens, she knew something had gone wrong with Wayne Clarke, the father of her two children who she was expected to marry in a matter of months.
"When I saw them I felt weak, I just went numb," she said.
Miss Campbell's worst fears came through on Monday when police discovered the body of a man which had washed ashore along the Palisadoes Road.
The body, which police say had multiple stab wounds, was that of 39-year-old Wayne Clarke, a supervisor at the Caribbean Cement Company Limited (CCCL).
STATE OF SHOCK
"A girlfriend who was going to the airport called me and said she saw the police there and wondered if it was Wayne," Miss Campbell told The Gleaner yesterday. "Then shortly after Mr. (Dalmain) Small (human resource manager at the CCCL) called me and told me it was him. I was in a state of shock."
For Charmaine Clarke, Mr. Clarke's older sister who went to the scene, the sight of her brother's lifeless body was too much to bear. She wept uncontrollably; it was the second sibling she had lost in four years.
Yesterday, Deputy Super-intendent Doric Sinclair of the Kingston East Police Division, told The Gleaner that they had made a breakthrough in the case. However, he did not say if any arrest was made.
It was a tragic end to the life of Wayne Clarke, the third of seven children born in east Kingston, not far from the Carib Cement Company where he had worked since 1988.
WEDDING RINGS BOUGHT
The recent months had been happy ones. He and Allecea were getting ready to tie the knot after 13 years together; the wedding rings had been bought.
Things weren't going too badly at work either as he had been promoted to supervisor in September and was involved in union activities and the sports club.
Miss Campbell says she last heard from him on Friday at 5:00 p.m. when their nine year-old daughter, Khadija, called him on his cellular phone.
"She asked him to carry home food but he said he couldn't because he would be working on the night shift," Miss Campbell recalled.
The first signs of panic from Mr. Clarke's family went up when several calls to his phone went unanswered.
Silvera Castro, senior industrial relations officer at Carib Cement, said the company had lost a 'disciplined, hard worker.'
The funeral service for Wayne Clarke will be held Saturday at St. Mary's Anglican Church on Molynes Road. The service is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m.
