Family dumbstruck at 19-y-o’s killing

Stanford Edwards has not slept or eaten since he learnt that his only daughter was found dead, with multiple gunshot wounds on Monday morning in Portmore, St Catherine.

The businessman travels back and forth to Jamaica and had what turned out to be the last conversation with his daughter, over the phone on Saturday, about some deliveries he wanted her to make.

Edwards struggled to put his thoughts together as he never imagined losing his daughter, with whom he had an “inseparable relationship”.

“I miss her greatly ... I miss everything about her. She was well loved by people,” he said.

Rahima Edwards and Nicholas Neufville, jumps coach at Calabar High School, were discovered dead beside a grey Honda Civic motor car on an open lot near Dawkins Drive.

The 19-year-old was a student at the University of Technology pursuing an undergraduate degree in business.

When she commenced tertiary studies, Edwards also took on full management of her father’s business, Stanford & Earl’s Juice Garden on Red Hills Road, having trailed him around and learned aspects of the healthy-food operation when she was much younger.

“They were just friends. I think they met when he came to the shop and bought from her,” the father said of his daughter’s connection with Neufville.

First cousin of the deceased, Karen Davis, shared that social-media users have been painting a bad picture of Rahima since the incident.

Davis reiterated that Edwards only shared a friendship with the coach, as the second-year student was focused on completing her studies.

“She had a bright future ahead of her. We are dumbstruck, we are pretty much confused, about why someone would want to hurt our loved one,” she said.

Davis appealed to members of the public with any information to come forward.

According to the Corporate Communications Unit (CCU), the Portmore police have commenced an intense probe into the incident.

The CCU also said it is believed that the two were shot to death.

judana.murphy@gleanerjm.com