The mother of the country’s first homicide victim for 2019 is encouraging people to trust their instincts, pay attention, look out for one another, and never give up on their children.
Patricia Kenyon is still grieving for her daughter Nicoma McFarlene who was allegedly strangled at their Freeman’s Village home earlier this month.
Her advice comes after an autopsy proved that contrary to what the evidence on the crime scene suggested, and what the police initially believed, her daughter did not kill herself.
A police constable on suspension for unrelated matters, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murdering the 25-year-old Jamaican, who only came to Antigua late last year.
The 50-year-old mother of the dead woman told OBSERVER media that from the time she examined the scene where she found her daughter unresponsive, she realised it was staged.
But when she told the police what she suspected, they did not share her view.
“When anything like this happens, especially when you know you leave a child home okay, everything was good, there was no complaint about anything and you just come home and find a child dead, it is not a good experience for anybody. When things like this happen don’t take it simple, go out and push and seek justice for your child…this could happen to anybody,” she said.
She was even more forceful in her tone when she advised, “Don’t take it as what the police might say at first, you have to dig deeper and get your own information.”
The mother highlighted the first thing that stood out to her was that there were very few blood drops on the scene, yet she was being told her daughter had killed herself by slitting her wrists and drinking Clorox.
“I was suspicious from the very same night of February 7th because there wasn’t really any blood there when I met her to say ‘yes, she really kill herself’, just a few spots … she was sitting with her hand hanging down and it was just a few spots like drips,” she said.
The woman recalled that after the Emergency Medical Services arrived and technicians attempted to revive her daughter, blood started running from her left wrist where they could see it had been cut in two places.
“They did not believe me because the first night they told me they believed she cut herself, she committed suicide, and they leave after that,” she said, referring to the police.
She said that as she moved around the house, which was not cordoned off or treated as a crime scene, she found more evidence to support her conclusion that her daughter was murdered.
There were blood stains on a door and water tank and a male wristwatch with blood on it was found in a room. Relatives who said they were talking with the deceased and exchanging photographs with her not long before she was found dead, attested that she was in great spirits and planning for the next day.
Some were, however, quick to believe the theory that she had killed herself because, starting from December 24th 2018, her Facebook posts caused family and friends to think she was suicidal. In one instance she wrote, “The pain i feel u never know. Emotions that i never show.” Then another post followed with her saying she was feeling sad and, “Nobody cares until it too late.” Under that caption, a photo was posted of someone hanging by the neck from a tree.
In other posts, reference was made to feeling alone, needing God’s help, not being any one’s favourite person and wanting to distance herself from everyone.
Kenyon said her daughter bounced back from that period and was happy.
According to the mother, McFarlene left their native Jamaica and came to Antigua to help her because she, the mother, has been ill and was scheduled to undergo surgery yesterday February 27th. The 25-year-old woman was supposed to be in Antigua from October 2018 to April 2019 once her mother had recovered from surgery.
But with her daughter gone, the surgery has been put off and now the family is instead planning a funeral.
Kenyon said she does not have the money to foot the bill so she is asking for help.
“I need the help to take home my daughter to be buried; the surgery can be done after,” she said.
She said anyone who wants to assist can contact her and the people supporting her on 772-2122, 784-2352 or 788-3809.