Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
A PORTMORE businessman yesterday became the third person kidnapped in less than a week.
Last Friday night 36-year-old Lollette Salmon was abducted in Burnt Savannah, Westmoreland, shortly after she had arrived in the island from an overseas trip. Her partially burnt body was later found near a river in Hanover.
On Monday night, 50-year-old Christine English was taken from her home in Gordon Town, St. Andrew, by armed men who at first began asking for a ransom of $6 million.
In the latest incident yesterday, reports are that the businessman, who police sources have identified as Cleveland Largie, was snatched from a premises on Cecile Avenue in Edgewater, St. Catherine, shortly after midday. He was forced into a car by three gunmen who sped away with him. The men have since contacted his wife and are demanding a ransom of $200,000.
"Up to now we are yet to find him," Superintendent Cornelius Walker, of the South St. Catherine Police Division, told The Gleaner last night.
Reports are that since last week several men have been visiting Mr. Largie at the premises and yesterday the three men were heard talking to him in an aggressive manner before taking him away.
FAMILY WANTS FULL CONTROL
Speaking with journalists yesterday at an emergency press conference, Deputy Commissioner Lucius Thomas gave an update on the case of Mrs. English. The officer said she last spoke with her relatives sometime on Tuesday and he believes she was still alive and well, up to yesterday. He said the family was coping well.
DCP Thomas said the family has since requested that the police back off and allow family members to continue their negotiations with the kidnappers, who have reduced their ransom demand from $6 million to $2 million.
"While we are prepared to dedicate every resource to her safe and speedy return, we have agreed to yield to the express wishes of Mrs. English's family that they be allowed to deal with all negotiations in this matter," DCP Thomas told journalists yesterday.
