(Jamaica Observer) A distraught St James mother is now seeking answers after the lifeless body of her daughter was discovered in the male bathroom of a warehousing distribution company in the Montego Bay Free Zone on Tuesday morning.
Dead is 22-year-old clerk, Donnia Johnson of Tucker, St James. The mother of a fouryear- old girl was three months pregnant.
“I will not rest because me pickney nah go down so. Jesus Christ man!” the grief-stricken mother, Shereen Johnson, wailed.
She told the Jamaica Observer that her nightmare began Monday evening when Donnia, who lived downstairs with her boyfriend and their young daughter, failed to return home by 5:30 pm, her usual time.
“I tried to reach her from after 6:00pm by telephone but the phone went unanswered. I called constantly and she did not answer. She normally called back if she see a missed call. She didn’t respond,” the grieving mother said.
After repeated calls, by herself and her son-in-law, to her daughter’s mobile phone went unanswered, Johnson assumed Donnia was either working overtime or leisurely walking around in downtown Montego Bay.
“I continued to call her constantly until I said she a big woman so whereever she is she will reach home eventually. So me gave my granddaughter to her father and they went downstairs to bed and I went to my room,” the distressed mother explained.
“I fell asleep and heard a knocking on my door after 1:00 am – it was my son-inlaw, [he said] she still did not reach home. I tried calling her phone three times more but it was not ringing. I couldn’t even call the workplace as it was too late. There was nothing much I could do until daylight so I got back to bed. When me wake up again it was 4:10 am and [I] tried her number again; it rang but went to voicemail. I thought she came and was downstairs and the phone nah pick up. All this time me never know say me pickney don’t reach her yard. Lord have mercy, all this time me don’t know that!”
Nothing could prepare her for the news she received early Tuesday morning after her daughter’s lifeless form was found slumped in the male bathroom at her workplace.
“As I was heading to the door to go downstairs, by the time me could reach the door it was her boyfriend crying and handing me the phone. He said take the phone, take the phone. I eventually took the phone and answered, they asked me if I am Fatty’s mother and I confirmed. They instructed me to come down to her workplace in Freeport immediately. When pressed further I was told that they went to work in the morning and found her lying down and the door was jammed and they had to take off the door. I went down there as fast as possible,” said Johnson.
She said she was prevented from seeing her daughter’s body because of the “position she was in”.
“When I got there I saw the ambulance so I said well maybe she unconscious and they are trying to revive her. But them barred me; they wouldn’t let me go see her,” the distraught mother said.
“They said she (daughter’s corpse) is inside the men’s bathroom, so me ask if there is a female bathroom then why is she in the male bathroom. They said maybe the female bathroom was busy so she used the male bathroom. Me want to see me pickney but dem hold me. Dem say they don’t want men to see her in that state. I asked what kind of state. They said she is in the male bathroom lying down with her underwear down and her neck set a way. They changed her position because they said they never wanted me to see her like that. They changed her position before the police got there.”
A senior police investigator who confirmed the tragic discovery agreed that the circumstances appeared “suspicious” but added, however, that the police would have to first await the results of a post-mortem examination to determine the cause of the young mother’s death.
Calls to the warehousing distribution company to get a comment on details of the deadly discovery, and how it has been affecting staff morale, proved futile.
The Observer was directed to the human resource manager who was said to be the one authorised to speak with the press on the matter.
He was said to be out of office and would be asked to return the call upon his return. Up to press time, there was no update from the company.