Robert Lalah, Staff Reporter

It was the question on everyone's lips. Who would want to hurt Miss Joyce?

Joyce Reid, a quiet 74-year-old woman, was strangled to death some time between eight o'clock Saturday night and dawn yesterday in her home at 14 Toronto Avenue, off Molynes Road in St. Andrew.

Miss Joyce, as she was known in her community, was found dead by a tenant of the house early yesterday with a computer cord wrapped around her neck. There were no signs of forced entry to the house.

As police were busy analysing the crime scene, dozens of neighbours gathered at the fence, peering over hedges to get a glimpse of what was going on inside.

Really sad

A man who said he lived almost exactly behind Miss Joyce's house, said her death was hard to accept.

"Miss Joyce is just a quiet woman. I live right there and I don't even remember her well. This is really sad," he said, shaking his head.

When the woman's body was brought out of the house on a stretcher and carried to a waiting van, the crowd gave a collective gasp. The tiny figure wrapped in a white sheet was no more than five feet tall.

"That little old woman couldn't hurt anybody. Who would be so wicked?" one woman asked.

Two persons, who occupied sections of the house, were taken away in police cars. The police said they were being taken to the police station where statements would be collected from them. Two young girls, who residents said were daughters of one of the persons taken away, were also transported to the police station. One of the girls was crying uncontrollably while clutching a stuffed animal and before putting her in the vehicle, a policeman gave her a hug and told her that everything was going to be alright.

But as the crowd started to disperse, two elderly gentlemen who were standing at the fence surmised that things were far from all right.

"This murder thing is out of control. This thing used to happen only certain places; now it happening everywhere," one of the men said.