(Jamaica Observer) An unofficial burial site the police have linked to the infamous Klansman Gang, which mainly operates in Spanish Town, St Catherine, yesterday yielded the remains of at least two people after investigators revisited a cold case.
The Klansman Gang is one of several major criminal organisations believed to be responsible for scores of murders in the country.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in charge of Crime Fitz Bailey told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that intelligence had led lawmen to an area dense with vegetation known as Waterloo Close, bordering Rivoli in the old capital, two years after investigators first visited the location but had come up empty-handed.
The senior cop said four femur bones were discovered among several other pieces of human remains including a skull, suggesting that at least two people had been buried there.
“We have been doing a lot of cold cases in recent times, focusing on some files that have been in existence for some period of time. And so, as a part of our cold case investigations, as well as our anti-gang investigations, about two years ago we actually visited that scene to identify at least five bodies that were buried there,” said Bailey.
“We became aware, based on our investigations, that there were possible burial sites for the Klans Gang. So we went there; we never came up with anything but we continued our investigations. We actually went there about two weeks ago, did some excavation [but] we came up with nothing. But we continued and made this discovery,” the DCP added.
He said the result of yesterday’s operation shows how persistent and committed members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JFC) are “because these are not some of the routine and mundane type of investigations that you would normally go through. It is very painstaking; it is very time-consuming. It is very intense”.
The operation also involved the use of cadaver dogs assigned to the JCF and the Jamaica Defence Force, Bailey told the Observer.
Cadaver dogs, also known as human remains-detection dogs, are trained to smell decomposition, which means they can locate body parts, tissue, blood, and bone.
“The dogs were able to assist us in the process by identifying some possible sites and so we did the excavation and we actually came up with at least two bodies. We found four femur bones so that’s at least two bodies; we believe there could be more because we found like a skull and we have found several other body parts,” Bailey said.
“So we’re convinced that the intelligence and our investigation are on point and we will have to do DNA to identify who those persons are. We found parts of clothing and when we went two weeks ago we found a pair of sneakers and some clothing and we went back again and we found that the bodies were buried in the grave. So we continue investigations in respect of that. We’re positive it’s a burial site for that gang,” he said.
