TRAUMATISED - Taxi driver sought in girl's murder
published: Tuesday | July 22, 2003
By John Myers Jnr. and Livingston Allen, Staff Writers
Mother of 12-year-old Janealle Blair, Janet Buchanan, 35, broke down in tears as she recalls the circumstances under which her daughter was killed. Six-year-old Dejaneei Blair, Janealle's sister, tries to comfort her mother. - Michael Sloley /Freelance Photographer
OLD HARBOUR, St. Catherine:
POLICE INVESTIGATORS were continuing their search yesterday for a taxi driver in connection with the kidnapping and killing of 12-year-old Janealle Blair of Old Harbour, St. Catherine.
The result of an autopsy conducted on the body yesterday revealed that Janealle was stabbed four times in the chest and died as a result of haemorrhage. Janealle's father, 36-year-old Desmond Blair, said the autopsy could not determine if she was sexually molested due to the extent of decomposition. However, further tests are being done on the body.
The police say they are yet to make a breakthrough in identifying the taxi driver, or the vehicle which Janealle reportedly took from Old Harbour square, heading for her home in Old Harbour Glades.
Inspector Selvern Francis, sub-officer in charge of the Old Harbour Police Station, told The Gleaner that people in the area, taxi men especially, are tight-lipped. According to Inspector Francis, the police have received no concrete information about the taxi or the driver, only that the car is white, has on red plates and has the slogan "PAC 2" across the windshield. He said the car has not been on the taxi-stand since the girl went missing.
Sunday morning, July 20, Janet Buchanan, Desmond and Dejaneei
Blair, younger sister and parents of Janealle, sat around the breakfast table at their home at 41 Seaview Avenue, Old Harbour Glades when The Gleaner visited. They were trying to have breakfast, but were unable to do so, because there was an empty chair the chair belonging to Janealle, who had been missing from Monday, July 14.
Janealle, who attended the Marlie Mount Primary School, had just passed the GSAT examination and was placed at the Old Harbour High School. On Monday June 14, all successful students were to attend the summer class to prepare for the September school term. Jan-ealle's mother took her to school that morning and told her to take a taxi home in the evening.
Having completed her first day of summer class, Janealle went to the taxi stand in Old Harbour square with one of her friends, who was also successful in GSAT. She reportedly took a taxi, but that was the last anyone saw her.
Family and friends of the Old Harbour Glades community launched a search for her from Tuesday morning, July 15. Late Sunday evening searchers found a partially decomposed body of a little girl in bushes off the Salt River Road in Clarendon. Janealle's father, Desmond, who was at the police station yesterday, identified the body as that of his little girl.
The Old Harbour police, who are continuing investigations, said it is the first time anything like this has ever happened in the area.
When The Gleaner went to the family home yesterday, Ms. Buchanan, who was sitting on the verandah, said the family has been having a hard time accepting the fact that Janealle was killed.
