SOHO IN SHOCK AS EX-LOVER KILLS WOMAN, HANGS SELF

The usual solemnity associated with Good Friday was utterly disturbed as residents of Soho in St Thomas expressed outrage at a suspected gruesome murder-suicide.

Forty-seven-year-old Lorraine Hutchinson of Middleton Road in the community had just finished washing clothes by her mother's when she left to take breakfast to her youngest child’s father, who was reportedly working on a farm she owns.

Upon reaching the farm in a nearby area called Penwood, she was met by man said to be her ex-lover, who stabbed her repeatedly, all over her body, including her neck.

The mother of four reportedly collapsed then died.

The incident, which allegedly took place in sight of her five-year-old son’s father, soon reached the ears of community members who went in search of the suspect.

They set fire to his house and later discovered his body hanging from a mango tree in the community, yards away from where Hutchinson’s body laid.

He has been identified as Roger Johnson.

Revealing that the accused was a good friend of the family, one of Hutchinson’s daughters, Shudean Beckett, expressed shock and hurt at the tragic incident.

“Mi just feel drained … . Mi tired … . Nothing more no lef'. Me and the man close. The whole family of us close so we naw expect him to do that. Mi nuh know a wah guh in him intention fi come tek people life like a him a God and a him build human," said Beckett.

"My mother is so innocent. From me a grow til now, mi never see her in a fight and mi a 20 now.”

The daughter told The Gleaner that Hutchinson and her killer have been in and out of a relationship for the past few years but that her mother had finally called it quits with the man some time last week.

“My mother told the man to leave her alone, so it look like he took it personal and come take her life. Mi never expect her to go like this,” Beckett said.

Beckett noted that her mother and the father of her little brother were not in a relationship but that as a farmer, he would help out on her field.

Sharing in the daughter’s astonishment were other family and community members who had come out to witness the aftermath of the Good Friday tragedy.

They shared that when she was attacked, Hutchinson pleaded and fought back as she reminded her would-be killer that she had children who needed her. Her cries and retaliation were not enough to save her life.

Shedeen Thompson, a cousin of the deceased woman, described what took place in the usually peaceful community as a double destruction.

“It’s very crazy and unbelievable. I’ve seen this on TV and social media, but this is my home … my backyard, and all of us always just live like one big family. Nothing like this never happened in the community before," Thompson said.

Up to March 30, seven people were murdered in the St Thomas Police Division, two more than for the corresponding period in 2020.

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