Jamaican-Born British Retiree, Hortense McNeil, 82, Found Stabbed to Death in Hopewell, Hanover Home After Multiple Burglaries

What is going on in some parts of Jamaica that were normally quiet and relatively crime-free? Hortense McNeil, a former resident of England, who retired and went back to Jamaica, was viciously stabbed to death by a dirty POS in her home in the Pond Piece community of Hopewell, Hanover. This hits close to home because I grew up in the same community, once an upper class neighborhood. My parents knew this woman quite well. My heart ached when my father called to tell us about this heinous act of violence against a decent and law-abiding woman, whose only wish was to return to the land of her birth to live out the rest of her days. This is a travesty. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

HOMICIDE detectives in Hanover are now probing the macabre murder of 82-year-old Hortense McNeil, a pensioner of Pondpiece district in Hopewell, Hanover. McNiel's body was found at her home with multiple stab wounds yesterday evening.

The Sandy Bay Police are that about 5:30 pm they were called to the area by residents who had stumbled across the body when they had gone to her home in search of her.

The residents had noticed that she had been missing from the community for some time and had become alarmed when repeated calls to her cellular phone went unanswered. Source: Jamaica Observer

This isn't the Jamaica I once knew. Lawlessness and gangs have taken over certain pockets of the country and people are literally prisoners in their own homes. There is a serious societal breakdown that says only the well-connected and educated can get the best jobs and reach the highest levels of professionalism. Once you are poor and uneducated, you are relegated to a life of penury, still that is no excuse to burglarize the homes of others and steal their property. Ms. McNeil's home has been burglarized on more than one occasion and her home ransacked and her hard-earned money stolen. My mother recalls quite clearly one of these burglaries in which she came face-to-face with the thief. She even filed a complaint with the police in Sandy Bay and one person was sent to prison for the crime. I have to wonder if this person was released and came back out of revenge to kill her. Somewhere walking around Hopewell, Hanover, is a piece of sh*t who needs to be locked up for the rest of his life. Who picks on an elderly person? A POS. I pray the forensics team will be able to find tissue under her finger nails from the killer. Her body was reportedly found with a knife in her hand. Presumably the murder weapon.

This murder is sending a bad message to Jamaican-born retirees living abroad who want to return home. My parents worked hard for many years in America and then retired and went back to Jamaica. I often wonder if this was the best move on their part due to a number of factors, most prominent, the high crime rates on the island. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Hortense McNeil. This is a tragedy on so many levels. We cannot afford to allow such a beautiful island to be overtaken by scum in the society. The British government should reclaim the island because it is obvious both parties, the ruling Jamaica Labor Party and the Peoples National Party can't govern the island, much less weed out the rampant crime.

Stay tuned. More to follow. We have calls in to the Sandy Bay Police Department and the Commissioner of Police for a statement in this unspeakable act of violence against an elderly woman. We would also welcome a statement from the Prime Minister of Jamaica or the Minister of Justice, since there seems to be a trend with violence against returning residents to the island.

UPDATE: Here's an excerpt from an article I found on the Jamaica Gleaner's website about returning residents and the fact they are often the target of crimes:

President of the Returning Residents Association, Percival La Touche, said immediate attention needed to be paid to the life of returned resident as, in the last seven years, 209 have been murdered. He said that, with an average of 30 deaths per year, it is clear that criminals do not believe they will be punished when they kill persons who went abroad and worked hard before returning to the island.