Residents foil murder-suicide attempt

Hectors River, Portland:

Quick action by residents of Hill Top in Hectors River, Portland, saved two lives as a man reportedly attacked his wife in the dead of the night on Wednesday.

At about 2 a.m., residents were jolted out of their sleep as Beverly Jones and her children’s screams for “Help!” and “Murder!” pierced the air in the quiet seaside community. They summoned the police, who arrived shortly after 2:30, finding the woman lying on the floor covered in blood with two stab wounds to the neck.

Further checks reveal that her husband, Extine Jones, who fled the room, was being held by persons after he reportedly attempted to take his own life.

“I just could not figure out the loud commotion and screams, especially [with them] coming from that particular house, where Christians reside,” resident Janice Trumpet told The Gleaner as she recalled the fateful night.

“These are people well known to me and just about everybody in this Hill Top area. They are seen every Sunday going to church, but what went wrong was shocking and disturbing. There has been talk from time to time that they were having marital problems, but we never expected anything like this,” she added.

Residents claim that the husband, the breadwinner for the family, which includes four children, works as a security guard in Kingston and has been under increasing pressure since money was being deducted from his salary to clear medical bills each month for one of the couple’s sick children.

They say the couple, who had been married for more than a decade, had frequent quarrels over money.

“It was during one of those early morning quarrels that a knife was brought into play, and the wife was stabbed by the husband in the neck, which triggered cries of murder and help from the children, who were obviously frightened,” a man, who gave his name only as ‘Maxi’, said.

Reports are that the couple was involved in a heated quarrel when it is alleged that the husband pulled a knife and stabbed Beverly twice in the neck and she fell to the ground.

Fearing that she was dead, Extine went to a section of the yard and tied a garden hose to a tree and then affixed the other end around his neck before jumping from the tree. However, residents said that the hose was too long and his feet managed to touch the ground, preventing him from being hanged.

The police took him away to seek medical treatment. The wife was taken to a separate hospital, where she has been admitted in a serious but stable condition.

The Manchioneal police are investigating this incident, which is the latest in at least three such attacks over the past week.

Last week Wednesday, a man reportedly killed his estranged wife then turned the gun on himself along Waltham Park Road in St Andrew in front of the couple’s 12-year-old daughter.

On Thursday, an elderly man in Mountain View, east Kingston, committed suicide after attacking his wife, who reportedly survived by pretending to be dead.