BASSETERRE, St Kitts (SKNVibes) – Three young men, including a Guyanese, were yesterday charged with the murder of 17-year-old Jakeel Alford whose burnt and dismembered remains were discovered within a 180-foot well in the White Gate area on Thursday, June 14, 2012.
Charged with murder are 26-year-old Kelvon Dickenson of Lovers Lane, St Paul’s Village; Everette Davis of Willets Housing Project, St Paul’s Village; and 17-year-old Guyanese Yul Abdula Chacon of Douglas Avenue, St Paul’s Village.
According to Police Press and Public Information Officer Sergeant Stephen Hector, success in the apprehension and subsequent charges preferred against the three men were due to the diligent investigation by members of the Criminal Investigation Department, led by Inspector Charles Smithen, and the enormous support given to them by the law-abiding public.
Hector noted that the men were arrested on Thursday (June 21) and Commissioner Celvin ‘CG’ Warner would like to thank the public for its support and looks forward to its continuance in order to make the Federation a safer place for its inhabitants and visitors to the two islands.
Alford, the son of Lorna Alford and Clive Malone of Willets Housing Project, St Paul’s Village, was reported missing since Thursday (June 7).
The former Verchild’s High School student was reportedly last seen at approximately 6.30 pm on that day, and since then numerous search parties by family members, headed by his brother Meshach Alford, were launched to find him.
According to Meshach, members of the Police Force, along with a tracking dog, had twice assisted them in the search for his brother.
But it was not until one week later that his remains were discovered and extracted from a 180-foot well within a tall-grassy patch of land in the White Gate area in Dieppe Bay.
Speaking with Sergeant Hector on that day, this publication was told that while conducting a joint operation in the White Gate area, police officers and soldiers discovered a burnt area that aroused their suspicion of an illegal activity.
“Earlier this morning, sometime before 10 o’clock, officers of the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force, whilst on a joint operation with officers from the Royal St Christopher and Nevis Police Force, came across an area in the White Gate area close to the mill some 250 feet away from the main road.
“On that site in question, we found an area that had a burnt patch and also a well in which examinations are currently ongoing with regard to the find. But I can report at this stage that we have asked for assistance from the Fire and Rescue Services. They have been summoned to the scene and we are about to do some rappelling in that location to actually retrieve and try to identify what may be suspected down at the bottom of that well.”
He also said that between the well and the burnt area they had found some particles that was later “denoted to be human remains, and was actually identified as human remains by our forensic examiner Lieutenant Alexander”.
A section from the Fire and Rescue Services were summoned to the scene and one member rappelled down the well where he located the remains.
SKNVibes learnt that the body seemed to have been dismembered before being burnt and thrown into the well, because the remains had to be placed in a number of buckets and taken to the surface where members of the Crime Scene Unit conducted further investigations.