Daraine Luton, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Cordinne Plummer and son, Gregg Madourie

How did Gregg Madourie die?

The mother of this 11-year-old boy, whose life came to an abrupt end at a children's home one month ago, is in search of answers.

Cordinne Plummer says she will not rest until she finds out what happened on the morning of October 21, 2006, when Gregg died at the Bethlehem Children's Home.

Troubled by myoclonic seizures since age one, Gregg died 17 days after his 11th birthday at the Highholbourn Street facility in downtown Kingston. The home is run by the charity group, Missionaries of the Poor, founded by Father Richard Ho Long.

Officials at the home reportedly have said that Gregg died in his sleep, but Ms. Plummer believes something strange happened which may have caused her son to suffer a violent death. Gregg's body had several bruises. An autopsy done to determine the cause of death has proven inconclusive.

Dr. Majorie Vassell, who was present as an independent observer said the body had bruises. Dr. Vassell, however, said she wants to see the histology (laboratory report) to get a real conclusion. Similarly, the Child Development Agency (CDA) has to await the results of the histology to determine whether an investigation is to be launched.

Ms. Plummer, however, has reasons to fear that her son was abused and this may have led to his death. The Sunday Gleaner has been unable to fully gather the police findings thus far as the policeman who is investigating the matter is on sick leave.

What is certain is that the management of Bethlehem did not follow due process when Gregg died. A policeman on duty at the Gold Street station, where the incident was reported, perused the station diary and confirmed that the matter was not reported until three days after. Under normal procedure, when there is a sudden death, the police must be notified and they must give permission for undertakers to remove the body.

"We have written to Father Ho Long reprimanding him for the delay in reporting the matter", Rashida St. Juste, CDA communications officer, told The Sunday Gleaner. "It should not have happened. The matter should have been promptly reported to the police."

Despite Gregg's death being sudden, the police say it was not until noon on October 24 that a brother Reymendez reported the incident to the Gold Street police. Brother Reynante, who is in charge of Bethlehem, says he was away in Hanover at the time and reported it as soon as he returned.

But it is the length of time the brothers took to report the incident and the state of Gregg's body that is fuelling Ms. Plummer's suspicion.

"When I was informed about Greg's death, I thought that maybe he had a seizure and no one was there to attend to him and so he might have suffocated. But when I went to see the body, this is the condition the body was in," the grieving mother tells Sunday Gleaner, as she displayed photographs of her son's body.

The photographs, some too graphic to be published, showed signs of bruises on Gregg's face, side, back and around on the neck area. Ms. Plummer said that was not how her son looked on Monday October 16, the day he last kissed her good bye.

"I visit him every weekend. I worked the Saturday and had a funeral on the Sunday and that is why I did not visit him on the weekend he died," she recounted.

The mother says she had noticed bruises on her son before while he was at the home and had spoken to "the brother" about it.

"I was there one weekend and saw bruises on him like the belt of a buckle. I spoke to the brother about it and he told be he was gonna investigate," Ms. Plummer related. "The brother investigated and said somebody beat him (Gregg) in the night and he later threw a padlock and hit the person," Ms. Plummer says.

On the day she visited the morgue where Gregg's body was lying, Ms. Plummer says she noticed something odd. The body, she says was clad in a long sleeve white shirt and full dockers pants.

"He would never go to bed looking like that. Somebody changed his clothes...If an investigation was going on, the police would find out the truth," Ms. Plummer contends.

Brother Reynante said he has not seen Gregg's body himself but from what he has heard, the bruises may have been caused by ants bites.

"What I hear was that he was found with some ants on his face and as soon as they found him they wiped them off...I don't know but the post mortem should show what happened," Brother Reynante says. "We did our best to care for the boy."