Andrea Downer, Gleaner Writer
Clement Lloyd Beckford, the Jamaican who was imprisoned in the Bahamas for killing his girlfriend, and who is still trying to get back home. - CONTRIBUTED
The following is the penultimate instalment in the series on Clement Beckford, who languished in a Bahamian prison for 25 years.
IN A confession that he signed in the presence of Bahamian police, Clement Beckford gave a detailed description of how he killed his girlfriend, Evelyn McKinney, covered up the crime and how for one month he pretended to look for someone whom he knew was dead.
According to the seven-page confession, at about 8:00 a.m., he took his girlfriend to work. He then went to his job at the power company. He had an electrician-qualifying examination scheduled for that morning and he sat the exam.
When the exam was over, sometime after 1:00 p.m., he asked his boss for the rest of the day off. He went home, had a ham and cheese sandwich, changed his clothes and left for the tennis court at the Silver Sands Hotel. There he and two of his friends and an employee of the hotel played tennis until late that evening.
Beckford was so engrossed in his game that he lost track of time and forgot to pick up his girlfriend from work. However, he called her and told her that he had been delayed by his tennis game. It was now 5:00 p.m.
He had time for a leisurely chat with his friends after the game and wound up leaving the hotel for home at 7:30 p.m. When he got home, McKinney was not there. She had apparently come in from work and left again after preparing his dinner. He ate, listened to some music and was still awake when McKinney came back home about 10:30 p.m.
COUNTDOWN TO MURDER
The countdown to murder had begun.
Beckford said his girlfriend, whom he had not seen in more than 14 hours, seemed in a hurry to go somewhere. "... She rushed right in and started to change her clothes. She was wearing a blue jeans pants, yellow top and beige clogs. I asked her where she was going and she said she was going out ..."
He was having none of it. He said after he watched her put on a white and creme-coloured dress and a pair of black, spike-heeled shoes, he put his foot down.
"... I then told her that she just came home and that I had not seen her all day, so she should not be going out ..."
He said they argued and started fighting. He slapped McKinney and she ran from the apartment. She did not get far. Beckford ran after her and caught up with her in the parking lot in front of the apartment building where they lived. They continued to fight.
BECAME UNCONSCIOUS
Beckford said he tried to get her into his friend's car, which was in the parking lot, and she hit her head against the vehicle and became unconscious. He said he went to his friend's apartment, which was in the same complex where he and McKinney lived and asked to borrow his friend's car. His friend gave him the keys.
When he returned to the car, his girlfriend was still unconscious. He put her in the car and drove to a lonely area at a dead-end road and took McKinney out. Not certain if she was dead, he made sure. "... I drag her a few yards in the bushes where I lick, stamp and throw a few rocks on her head where I left her in the bushes lying dead ..."
He said a piece of carpet that had been in the car had become stained with McKinney's blood, so he took it out of the car and threw it on her body.
Before returning home, he went for a short drive and bought a pack of his favourite brand of cigarettes. That night, sleep eluded him. Later he told police "... I sat up all night thinking of what I did ..."
Tomorrow: Masking murder
