At left, Peta-Gaye Patterson, seven, another of Caston Haase's victims. At right,
Brenda-Lee Dinnal, six, who was hacked to death by her uncle, Caston Haase in Mount Hybla, Rural St. Andrew, last Tuesday.
Claude Mills
, Staff Reporter
JAMAICANS RECOILED in horror last week as news circulated about the slaying of three young children by an epileptic, machete-wielding uncle, 44-year-old Caston Haase.
The attack also led to critical injuries to three adults who are now at the University Hospital of the West Indies.
A Sunday Gleaner team visited the community of Rest House, Mount Hybla, 48 hours after the tragedy to speak to relatives and residents about the bloody episode.
It was an arduous rain-filled journey north east of Kingston through communities such as Gordon Town, Mavis Bank, and across a narrow fording over a gurgling Yallahs River. The news team zig-zagged along a narrow tongue of a slippery, broken road for close to one hour, before finally arriving at the crest of the Mt. Hybla community in St. Andrew.
FARMING
According to guestimates, at least 5,000 persons live in the area where many are engaged in farming of cash crops such as coffee, escallion and thyme.
The residents spoke openly about the incident, which reads like one man's descent into a murderous abyss, greased by self-loathing, a peculiar illness and what residents quaintly called 'bad mind'.
At 6:30 p.m., Caston, while walking down from his mother's house that sits at the top of a small rise on the family-owned property, encounters his sisters, Veronica and Debbie Taylor, who is toting a baby bag and carrying her six-month-old baby in her arms. He passes them and goes into a nearby family house. The sisters stop to converse at a spot which marks three family tombs. The light is bleeding out of the sky, as the day inches towards dark. Seconds later, Caston steps out of his house and immediately makes a beeline for the sisters.
As he draws closer, Veronica recognises that her eldest brother has a cutlass in his hand. She screams out 'murder', leaps off one of the tombs, and jumps headfirst down a steep, grassy slope full of coffee plants, shrubs and tumbles almost 20 feet to the road. Debbie is not so lucky. He chops her across the head, and she drops her bag, and the baby falls from her arms. She scampers down the slope, and Caston pursues her, wielding the cutlass, and chopping her several times over her body.
Somehow, she narrowly es-capes with several injuries to her back, and head, and tumbles down the slope as well. Caston returns to the gravesite, and sees the baby, and chops her to death.
Caston heads up to his mother's house along a path marked by coffee plants to continue his bloody rampage.
ALARM RAISED
By this time, an alarm has already been raised on the family property. One sister, Leonie, runs past the zinc kitchenette, and into a nearby coffee field where she hides in the darkness. Another sister, Donnette runs to her house, and locks her door which is little more than a thin sliver of wood. Caston begins to rain chops on the door. Donnette begins to scream.
One of the blows carries the cutlass straight through the door. Donnette sees the blood-stained machete, panics, and kicks out a board window which leads to an adjoining room. A dresser blocks out part of the window. Donnette, a portly, plus-sized woman, squeezes through the hole without moving the dresser an act which she still marvels at today.
In the meantime, Emily Taylor, the matriarch of the family, has barricaded herself in her room, unable to come out, and terrified as news reaches her via phone that her eldest son had chopped up her daughter, Debbie.
"Mi hear the lass ah talk pon the door outside as him a try get to Donnette, but mi just afraid to come out," the mother of 15 said.
In the meantime, Litchmore Taylor, alerted to the danger by his sister Veronica, ran up to his mother's house where he saw his brother in the throes of a murderous rage.
DISAPPEARED
With the help of friends, he was able to corner, subdue and disarm his older brother. At this time, Litchmore Taylor did not yet know that his six-month-old niece had been killed. Caston fought them and eventually escaped their clutches, and disappeared into the growing gloom.
A few minutes after 7:00 p.m. Caston reportedly kicked off the door to a neighbour's house, and armed himself with another machete, and set out now in full-attack mode to hunt potential victims.
At 7:30 p.m., Caston spots an elderly woman and her young grandson walking on the road. He attacks the old woman, Mildred 'Ms. Patsy' Willis, and chops off her hand, but the grandson escapes in nearby bushes. Ms. Willis' hand is discovered later by her son, Clement Walker. Caston later attacks 38-year-old Tantan Hibbert who is now in hospital in critical condition.
"The bredda just attack har, and har grandson, him not even know what him do and the pressure him bring down pon me right now," Sylvester Duncan, Ms. Patsy's husband, told The Sunday Gleaner. "The man just go berserk inna the night."
AMBUSHES
This becomes the running theme for the next tense eight hours: ambushes in the womb of night by a machete-wielding maniac. Later that night, Caston ambushes his niece, Brenda 'Browning' Dinnal (Leonie's daughter), and Peta-Gaye 'Shanique' Patterson (Debbie's other daughter) as they were making their way to safety through a bush-choked ravine. Another child, a boy, escapes the attack by clambering up into a tree.
By this time, the body of Debbie's six-month-old daughter has been discovered. After a whirl of phone calls, residents organised themselves into search parties and then armed with machetes, pick axe sticks and stones, began using flashlights and other methods of illumination to comb the inky night for their quarry, Caston. There are few streetlights in the community.
Many sought safe houses for their children. Residents from neighbouring Hall's Delight, other areas of Rest House, David's Hill and St. Peters came into the community to render assistance.
Still, despite their superior numbers, they were unable to track him down, and those who came closest to him, ran away in terror when he approached.
"All 10 man ah run from him 'cause him just have that look inna him, and him taste blood already, him did already kill three people by dem time de," said Litchmore Taylor. "He was crafty and dangerous too because he would pretend that he wasn't going to do you anything and then rush you, he did that to a couple of youth. Even the police who were up here were afraid because it was so dark, and they couldn't see anything."
About 3:30 a.m., residents were able to coax Caston off a hill, promising him that they would not hurt him.
'DESERVE FI DEAD'
"I wasn't there but I heard that he came down with his lass in his hand, and he said, 'Mi know oonu ah go kill mi, but mi a come down', and then they chopped him up and killed him. Mi feel bad fi know dat is mi bredda but him deserve fi dead fi what him do," Mr. Taylor said.
Residents theorised that Caston's attack was not madness per se, but a deliberately orchestrated campaign of killing and maiming of those closest to him.
"The man neva mad. Him wasn't raving or anything, him just quiet like a shark a cut through the water. Him nah talk, him just a chop chop so," one resident said in a hushed whisper.
