Three suspects have been arrested over the brutal murders of a mother and daughter who were beheaded during a home invasion.
Six other suspects are being sought for the killing of Charmaine Rattray and her 19-year-old daughter Joyette Lynch on July 20 in Spanish Town, Jamaica.
Police chiefs told a news conference at the Jamaica Constabulary headquarters in Kingston that criminal charges would be filed soon.
Assistant police commissioner Novelle Grant said: ‘We are, I want to assure you, committed to our task and we will continue to investigate as robustly as we can.’
The night-time decapitations in a typically quiet neighbourhood on the outskirts of the town have sent shockwaves through much of the island’s society.
Authorities said the killings appeared to be related to a power struggle within the Clansman gang, which has been at war for years with the One Order gang over drug and extortion rings.
To avenge a death or send a message, Jamaican gangs will sometimes murder someone who merely lives in a neighbourhood controlled by rivals.
Two days before the women were butchered, 18-year-old Scott Thomas – a reputed Clansman named by police as a suspect in several killings – was beheaded in his Spanish Town home by a group of men armed with guns and machetes.
In an apparent copycat crime the same week, 37-year-old Gary Smith of August Town, Kingston, was decapitated by a group of attackers who dragged him out of his house. His attackers are still at large.
National Security Minister Dwight Nelson congratulated investigators for arresting the suspects in the women’s murders.
‘The security forces have signalled they will not cower under the brute force and barbarity of heartless criminals who are bent on unleashing nationwide fear and anguish,’ he said.
